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KENNESAW'S 

BOMBARDMENT. 




HOW THE SHARPSHOOTERS 

WOKE UP THE BATTERIES. 

By JOSEPH M. BROWN. 



RECORD PUBLISHING CO., ATLANTA, GA. 

189(). 



xi! 



vj. 



KENNESAWS BOMBARDMEfJT. 



OR 



How tliB Sharpshooters 

Woke lip the Batteries. 



JOSEPH M. BROWN. 



Atlanta, Ga. 

Hecord Publishing Company. 

1890. 






Entered ac'Cordiiig to Act ot Congress, in the year of our Lord 1890j 

By Joseph M. Brown, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D.^C. 



2Z~I(^V^ 









PREFACE. 

It is customary for an author to introduce his book 
with a preface, and, since 

"Man yields to custom as he bows to fate," 
this book will have to begin with a preface, although 
it has become necessary to drop out a few shells in order 
to get it in, the only regret of the "men who were on the 
mountain top," being that the omission was not made 
over twenty-live years earlier. 

As the reader will readily gather by wading through it, 
and looking at the pictures, it is intended as a historical 
novel, — as a view of the panorama which war spread out 
upon and around Kennesaw Mountain on that "day of 
thrilling events," — the historical part of it being as nearly 
correct as it is possible to make it by laboriously and care- 
fully fishing out the facts with a drag-net with pin-hook 
attachment, — and the fictitious part being as fascinating 
as the writer's riotous love of sentiment will allow. If it 
be urged by the northern reader that the "sentiment" is all 
southern, it is a fair reply to say that that was the kind 
which prevailed on Kennesaw at the date shown in the 
book ; and the author's intention and determination have 
been to make the picture a true and characteristic on«^. 

In the preparation of this work, there has been the 
most extensive research, at odd times within the past 
three years, through official reports, files of daily news- 
papers published during June, 1864, and correspondence 
or personal conversations with those who took part in the 
scenes attempted to be described. All the characters in 
the book are real ones, except some four or five, and those 



the reader, whether he has got his "Counterfeit Detector" 
with him or not, will doubtless readily pick out. 

There are several anachronisms as to dates, none, how- 
ever, being actually more than three or four days before 
or after June 23, and the incidents in question are all 
brought into that day for the purpose of making it 
illustrate what was practically the everyday experience 
during the almost two weeks that the Confederate batteries 
were on the mountain-top. 

Of course there had to be a pretty girl in it, or else 
the novel would not have been a stunning success, na 
matter whether the bombardment was or not. 

Atlanta, Ga., January 15, 1890. 



KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMEi\T, 



OR 



How the Sharpshooters Woke up the Batteries. 



CHAPTER I. 



It was on the forenoon of Thursday, June 23d, 
1864. 

A cold, drenching rain had been falling- many 
hours. The two weeks of wet weather had cul- 
minated in a furious thunderstorm ; and the past 
night and this morning had seemed to gather unto 
themselves almost the terrific grandeur of a tropical 
tempest. Rain ! rain ! rain ! the forests were drop- 
ping it like spray, the hillsides were shedding it in 
sheets, the creeks were becoming rivers. 

But the center of all the elements' fury was Ken- 
nesaw Mountain. About its twin peaks the clouds 
had clustered as though the)'^ were a storm magnet. 
The lightning, which occasionally flashed its daz- 
zling splendors through the blinding darkness of 
the night, seemed to blaze around the towering 
crests like a fiery diadem ; the thunder, which rolled 



6 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

forth and reverberated with deafening echoes for 
leagues around, one could almost imagine was the 
wrathful shout of the mountain god. How the 
winds howled ! how the rain poured I 

Thus through the night the aerial battle had 
raged; and with scarcely less fury had it continued 
until well into^the forenoon. 

At length, as if from the mere exhaustion of the 
■elements, a calm hour came on. The rain ceased 
falling, except now and then a light mist, which, 
observed from|the valley, appeared like a veil to 
adorn the mountain. Then through a rift in the 
storm-cloud a golden shaft seemed to dart; and the 
next instant the mountain top was glorified by a 
halo of dazzling sun-light. Then the drifting fog 
enveloped it again, and obscurity was lord for a 
minute. 

But the fresh breeze, which had just sprung up, 
soon swept away again these "cobwebs from the 
sky," and majestic Kennesaw's crown once more 
towered above the vision for miles around. 

Thus alternately the flashing sunlight and the 
thickly-banked clouds struggled for the possession 
of the mountain and the surrounding hills and fields. 
And how similar was this war for mastery of the 
elements above to that which at the same time was 
being waged by man below, in which the grandest 
genius of America was giving direction to the mar- 
shalling of the bravest and most intelligent soldiery 
of the age. 



WAKING UP THE B VTTERIES. 7 

But now as the storm is breaking, and the first 
sunshine of a fortnight* is lighting the sky, let us 
look immediately upon Kennesaw, for there the 
initial steps are just being taken which will shortly 
bring about one of the most thrillingly magnificent 
yet terrific scenes which America ever witnessed. 

For nearly a month Johnston's and Sherman's 
armies had been fighting with desperate valor in 
sight of Kennesaw Mountain. Nev/ Hope Church, 
Pickett's Mill, Lost Mountain, Pine Mountain, Gil- 
gal Church, Mud Creek, Noonday Creek, Brush 
Mountain, once names of mere local note, had now 
become throughout the land household synonyms 
for scenes of blood. 

The battle front had been successively changed 
until to-day the Confederate army faced its enemy's 
almost double numbers with entrenchments which 
began east of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, 
thence crossed it, and ran up the long ridge of 
Kennesaw Mountain, just below the north front of 
both crests, and, descending its western slant, turned 
abruptly south, and extended through the valley 
and over the hills, parallel to the railroad, for some 
four miles. 

Loring's corps (till late that of the Bishop-General 

■-"The wpather is villainously bad."— Gen. Sherman to Gen. 
Thomas, June 18, 1804. ^ , , 

"This is the nineteenth dav of ram, and the prospect of clear 
weather as far off as ever. The roads are impassable, and fields 
and woods become quaijmires after a few wagons have crossed. 
■•:= =;= a= The enemy holds Kennesaw, a conical mountam, with 
Marietta behind it, and has retired his flanks to cover that town 
and his railroad. I am all ready to attack the moment the 
weather and roads will permit troops and arti'lery to move with 
anything like life.'"— Gen. Sherman to Gen. Halleck, June 21, 
1804. 



8 KENNESAWS BOMBARDMENT. 

Polk, whose tragic death on Pine Mountain had 
crowned it in the Southland's memory with the 
immortelles of melancholy,) covered the mountain. 

Walthall's division (Quarles' brigade on the right, 
Cantey's in the center and Reynolds' on the left;) 
extended from the base up the ridge of Great Ken- 
nesaw to the crest, and there met the right brigade 
(Ector's) of French's division, which descended to 
the gap between the two peaks and over the little 
knob which rises like a hump from the ravine be- 
tween Great and Little Kennesaw. Ector's brig- 
ade also occupied the works from this ravine to the 
top of Little Kennesaw, thence Sears' was pro- 
longed behind those on the north side of and a little 
below the summit and partly down the slope on the 
west, at which point it aligned with Cockrell's Mis- 
souri brigade, whose front extended down the ex- 
posed slant, across the ravine and over the high hill 
on the west, to the plain. 

It was now well into the morning, and General 
French, who had come from his headquarters up to the 
mountain top early after breakfast, had just gotten 
through with a short consultation with his brigade 
commanders and some others, who had been after- 
wards called in, to join an informal discussion over 
the military situation that day. 

Standing by a huge crag near the eastern end of 
the summit of Little Kennesaw was General French 
himself, — short in stature, but the ideal of a com- 
mander. On his right, on a rock, sat Colonel 
W. S. Barry, who was in command of the brigade 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 9 

of General Sears, who was absent this day because 
of sickness, and by his side, writing in his note-book, 
was Major D. W. Sanders, General French's Adju- 
tant-General ; leaning against an artillery caisson 
in front, examining a map, was the tall form of 
General Francis M, Cockrell, every inch a soldier; 
with him stood Lieutenant-Colonel D. Todd 
Samuels, of the Third Missouri cavalry, and on the 
other side. Colonel James McCown, of the Fifth 
Missouri, was I'eading a memorandum order which 
had just been handed him by Colonel Elijah Gates, 
the gallant and popular commander of the First 
Missouri cavalry, and Cockrell's chief lieutenant. 

Standing on the rocky parapet in front of one of 
the cannon of Hoskins' battery, — whose muzzle 
faced Pine Mountain, where was now a Federal 
signal station, — Colonel W. H. Young, of the Ninth 
Texas cavalry, with a field-glass was surveying the 
movements of a body of Federal infantry from the 
vicinity of the Cheatham house on the north toward 
the mountain. 

By his side was Major Geo. S. Storrs, General 
French's chief of artillery, who had been called by 
some, "one of the bravest men in the Confederate 
army," under whose direction the Confederates had 
planted several batteries on the crest of the moun- 
tain. This achievement was one almost wonderful 
in the boldness of its conception, and the ingenuity 
and triumph over the apparently insurmountable 
obstacles which nature had placed in the way. 

The fire from the Federal batteries commanding 



10 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

the slanting end of the mountain, he had found a 
Avay to drag the cannon by men with long ropes, — 
there being two hundred men allotted to each can- 
non, in performing this task, — up the steep side on 
the south; and here now, from behind the mons- 
trous bowlders, or piles of loose stones, they frowned 
upon the Federal camps and works in the plain and 
on the hills far below. 

These parapets were erected by General Gibson's 
Louisiana Brigade, which was temporarily attached 
to French's division, being on this date, with Holtz- 
claw's Alabama Brigade, in reserve behind the 
mountain. Of General Gibson and his command 
Major Storrs said : "The artillerymen thought him 
a very clever gentleman and his brigade fine sol- 
diers, because all they asked of us was to set the 
stakes, and then they went energetically at it with 
picks and shovels, and not only built splendid works, 
but carried by hand a large amount of ammunition 
up the mountain and stored it in our extempore 
magazines, while the artillerymen, except a few to 
give directions, slept so as to be fresh for the next 
day." 

Of Major Storrs himself the most characteristic 
description probably was given by one of the artil- 
lerymen of Captain Hoskins' detachment on the 
mountain top, when asked who was in command of 
that section of Hoskins' battery — the captain him- 
self being in personal charge of that section which 
was on the hill to the west of Kenuesaw. Said he : 
"I cannot say who was in command, unless it was 



v;^^V',"*:r^4t^ 







PLANTING THE GUNS ON KENNESAW. 



12 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

Major Storrs, who, in person, gave us every order 
we received on the mountain. He was about as 
near one of us as could be, and often sighted and 
directed the movement of the guns. In fact, 
he was everywhere where things were the warmest. 
He was over the mountain constantly every day, 
and 1 never saw a time anything was being shot 
away, but what Major Storrs was in sight or near 
by. Yes, he was a good one, and you could bet 
everything you had or could borrow on his personal 
skill and courage. It would take a great deal of 
space to write up the good soldierly qualities of 
Major Storrs." 

Right behind Major Storrs and Colonel Young, 
sitting on a rock and drawing a profile, were Major 
Gus(J. A.)ShiDgleur, the division Inspector General, 
and Captain Porter, of the engineers, who had both 
assisted Major Storrs in making an examination of 
Little Kennesaw before the guns were taken up. 

Only a few steps to the left of these, two officers, 
subordinate in rank, but greatly beloved by officers 
and men alike, were engaged in earnest conversa- 
tion. These were Lieutenant Archibald D. Man- 
ning, a Cumberland Presbyterian preacher, and 
Lieutenant F. M. Baker, of the Fifth Missouri 
infantry, a model officer and Christian. 

In front of the parapet, about twenty steps down 
the mountain side, in the shadow of a tree, was a 
group of officers and men surveying the prospect 
below them extending far away on the north and 
west. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 13 

Among these were Colonel W. H, Clark, of the 
Forty-sixth Mississippi regiment, (Sears' brigade), 
Colonel J. L. Camp, of the Fourteenth Texas, 
Colonel D. Coleman, of the Thirty-ninth North 
Carolina, Major H. D. E. Redwine,— the latter 
three belonging to Ector's brigade, and Captain 
A. J. Booty, of the Fourteenth Texas. 

Sitting on a crag, just to the left, were Captain 
Pat Canniff, brave and shrewd, and Lieutenant 
J. R. Mothershead, a most gallant officer and 
exemplary Christian gentleman. These belonged 
to Cockrell's brigade. 

Farther up to the left was a group of artillery 
officers, among whom was Captain Jno. J. Ward, 
whose gallantry and wisdom as an officer were 
matched by his genial disposition and estimable 
social qualities ; although the crowning trait of his 
character was his pure Christian love. As was 
said of him, "he was every inch a soldier, every 
inch a gentleman." By his side Captain James A. 
Hoskins was engaged in a jocular dispute with 
Captain R. H. Bellamy over the relative superiority 
of the ten-pounder Parrott guns which were in their 
respective batteries. 

"That's very good for bragging," exclaimed Cap- 
tain C. L. Lumsden, who with Captain Bellamy 
had left their respective batteries down the west 
slope of the hill at the end of the mountain, com- 
manding the Burnt Hickory road from Marietta, 
and come up here in obedience to orders, to join in 
a consultation with General French and Maior 



14 KENNESAW'S B0MBARDME2^T. 

Storrs; "but my Alabama battery of Napoleons 
would make both of you jump for cover if I opened 
upon you." 

"Ha! ha! wait till you hear from the proprietor 
of Guibor's Missouri battery," interjected Lieuten- 
ant A. W. Harris, of that battery, "and you'll 
think there's thunder among the mountains." 

"Well, the Lord knows we don't want any more 
thunder among the mountains," exclaimed a private, 
who was burnishing his gun, "especially if it fetches 
as much rain as it did last night. Gracious! it 
seemed like Niagaray Falls, as the Vermont Yankee 
called 'em, was a pouring down on me, as I stood 
0^1 picket duty near the foot of the mountain. 
I think enough water soaked into me to dilute all 
the whisky I'll drink for a month. I didn't want 
to stay down there in it five minutes, but the 
trouble was I had an engagement to stay there all 
night; and it was like an engagement to be hung, — 
one which couldn't be dispensed with without 
danger of serious detriment to the public interest." 

"Boys," said Lieutenant Mothershead, who had 
heard this last remark, "I have been told about 
being enfolded in the arms of Morpheus; but last 
night all of us were enfolded in the arms of the 
thunderstorm. Why, our tent was worth no more 
than a veil. The clouds rolled against it so thick 
that you could feel them with the hand; the rain 
beat in like it was coming throiigh a sieve, and, to 
cap it all, a gust of wind came howling along and 
tore it entirely from the pins on one side. Just 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 15 

then the lightning seemed to set the whole moun- 
tain on fire, and the peal of thunder that followed 
is almost roaring in my ears yet." 

"Well, there's some consolation about it all," 
exclaimed Captain Canniff, "if another flood comes 
it will drown the Yankees first; or it will make 
them come up here and surrender to us. Just 
imagine* old Sherman's hundred thousand men 
climbing up the mountain to surrender to our divi- 
sion ! " 

"How did you say General Sears was?" asked 
General French of Colonel Barry, as they and 
several others walked by the group of artillery 
officers toward the west. 

"I received a note from his headquarters only 
an hour ago," was the reply, "and he is reported a 
little better this morning." 

"Well, I am glad to learn that," said General 
French, "but did I understand you to say that 
he has established his headquarters down yonder in 
the valley at the base of the mountain which he will 
have to climb?" 

"Yes, sir," answered Colonel Barry, "he is down 
there. You know General Sears comes from Missis- 
sippi where there is not much mountain climbing." 

"But," said General French, "location and 
accessibility to his brigade are a necessity. Send 
word to him that as soon as he recovers he had 
better move his headquarters nearer the line, the 
mountain is so inaccessible." 

"All right, General," responded Col. Barry, 



16 



KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 



"and as I am just sending my morning report down 
to him, I will add that such is your wish in the 
matter." 

Turning to a sergeant who was with him he wrote 
a note and handed to him with orders to take the 
papers to General Sears. 




WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 17 



CHAPTER II. 

'.'Say, Colonel," exclaimed a North Georgia moun- 
taineer, named Partridge, to Col. Young, "what 
do you make out of that body of Yankees down 
there in the field, near the railroad? Don't you 
think we could creep down ihe mountain, and get 
the range of 'era, and make 'em behave 'emselves?" 

"Yes," answered the colonel, "they seem to be 
making observations ; and it might be well to run 
them behind cover. Suppose you sharpshooters 
get down among those crags yonder, and try them." 

"Well, we're the chaps to do it," sang out a 

Texan. 

"Love is love and beauty's beauty : 
But killing Yanks, ah! that is duty." 

sang out a couple of others ; and then the word was 
passed along the line that the sharpshooters would 
have the privilege of entertaining themselves for 
the next hour or two without restraint. 

There were nearly twenty of these wbo were 
picked men, — selected for fine marksmanship, and 
furnished with good Whitworth'*^ and Enfield rifles, 

•-"We liatl a corps of sharpshooters, howCTer, perhaps the 
most expert in the army. They were armed with the Whitworth 
ritle — an English gun with a tele"scope on the side. This gun was 
deemed the be.st in use. Each brigade had four of them. We 
could not procure more. They were expensive and rare." — Ben- 
ham's "Life of Gen. P. R. Cleburne." 

"I heard that the Whitworth rifles cost fifteen hundred dol- 
lars a piece in gold in England, and the Yankees never had any of 
them. I know Porter, one of the picked men, was shot in the eye 
on Kennesaw or around it, and died in a few days. I shot his gun 



18 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

the best which could be imported from Europe or 
captured from the enemy. Partridge was a vol- 
unteer member of this body, having joined the ar- 
my after some of Garrard's cavalry had burned his 
cabin and turned his family out in the woods. He 
captured his own rifle, a Whitworth, from a Fed- 
eral sharpshooter whom he waylaid and killed near 
Cassville. This identical gun had been taken from 
a Confederate sharpshooter (of Cheatham's division) 
who was mortally wounded the day before, near 
Adairsville. Partridge having rescued it was al- 
lowed to retain it. 

They disappeared among the bushes down the 
mountain side, in the neighborhood of a steep, 
craggy formation of outcropping rocks, where there 
was perfect shelter from danger from shells. 

"Say, Captain Ward," yelled Partridge, "if they 
get to shootin' b'ilin' pots at us you must show 'em 
that your Parrotts can say 'Pretty Poll,' too." 

"Ha! ha!" laughed the captain good-humoredly, 
"we'll drop some shells among them if they open 
upon you ; make that group of officers get back out 
of sight. They are taking too leisurely a look 
at us." 

"All right, we'll make 'em do it, even if we have 

a few days; but they kick so, and you hold a long telescope to 
your eye that runs along the barrel, and if you are not careful to 
keep it tight against the shoulder, so that when you fire your head 
must come back with the recoil, or else you receive the kick in 
your eye which would put it out, There were only five of these in 
our division, and they were the surest to kill of anything. The 
Whitworth balls are very long, and nearly all the Yankee prison- 
ers had picked up one as a reliC: saying they had killed a man or 
a horse a mile in the rear of their army." — Letter from a member 
of Hoskins' battery to the author. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 19 

to wake up the batteries," halloed Partridge, as he 
passed out of sight. 

"My Parrotts, eh!" laughed Captain Ward, turn- 
ing to Major Storrs, "well, Parrotts or Napoleons, 
they are the same to him if we will only drop a shell 
or so down yonder should the Yankee artillery open 
upon him." 

"Yes," answered the major, "Partridge does not 
care anything about names so he gets the thing he 
wants. A wonderfully fine marksman he is ; and 
we will soon hear from him." 

"Why, great heavens! Minon, what does this 
mean?" exclaimed Captain Ward, as he walked 
back on the crest of the ridge, and suddenly met 
one of his sergeants, who was only a few steps in 
front of a beautiful lady and a little boy. 

"Ah! Captain Ward, let me introduce you to 
Miss Harper, and to Master Jack Harper," said the 
gallant young artilleryman. 

Captain Ward's polite bow was met by a most 
gracelul one from the young lady, while little Jack 
came forward and extended his hand, saying, "And 
is this your Captain Ward, Mr. Minon? Why he's 
a mighty good-looking man to be a cannon man." 

The captain grasped Jack's hand cordially, and 
answered, "Thank you, Master Jack, I am Captain 
Ward, the cannon man." 

"Well, then, Captain Ward, I want to join your 
cannon company, and be one of your soldiers. 
I want to learn to shoot one of your biggest cannon. 
They make a heap of noise." 



20 KENNESAWS BOMBARDxMENT. 

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the captain, "do you 
think you are large enough, Jack, to shoot a can- 
non? Then you must know that all of my soldiers 
have to obey orders; and I am afraid that you 
would want to get away if I ordered you to stay 
when the Yankees got to throwing big bombshells 
all around you." 

"Oh! I'd stay if you ordered me to," answered 
Jack in a tone of very positive earnestness, "please, 
Captain, can't I be one of your soldiers?" 

"Yes," said Miss Harper to the captain, "it is 
Jack's highest ambition to be a soldier, and shoot 
the cannon. He has been begging for several days 
to be allowed to come up on the mountain, and see 
the soldiers and the cannon; so last night Mr. 
Minon promised that if to-day was fair, he would 
bring Jack up. He had no idea he would be called 
upon to do so; but this morning after the clouds 
scattered, Jack summoned him to niake good his 
promise, and, after some argument, carried his point. 
Mother, however, would not agree to let him come 
till Mr. Minon said he would take special care of 
him; and then I was persuaded to come along, 
as there was no danger today, and help keep him 
within bounds." 

"And, Captain, it would have made you proud 
of our Georgia young ladies if you had seen how. 
bravely Miss Harper stood the trip up the mountain 
side till we arrived here about a half hour ago. 
She did not seem to be as tired as I was." 

"Oh, no, it is not a feeling of weariness, but of 



WAKING UP THE BA.TTERIES. 21 

apprehension of danger which disturbs me," said his 
fair comrade. "Do you think we are going to have 
any fighting today, Captain Ward?" 

"Well, I hope not up here to any great extent," 
answered the latter, "at least for a little while yet. 
Come forward with me, and look over at the 
Yankee camps on the north and west." 

"Yes, let's shoot the cannon at 'em, Captain 
Ward," sang out Jack, 

"Come here, Miss Harper," said Captain Ward, 
"and let us survey the panorama which war spreads 
out before us. Look south now to that prominent 
hill which rises so conspicuously out of the plain, 
about two or three miles from here. That is the 
centre of General Cheatham's position, and is just 
east of the house and farm of a countryman named 
Channell. His division occupies a strong line of 
entrenchments on its crest, extends beyond it also 
to the south, and comes up this way for a few hun- 
dred yards until it reaches the portion of our line 
which is held by the gallant Pat Cleburne and his 
famous division. 

"Ah! what heroes Cleburne and Cheatham are. 
They are the two ^ions of the Confederate army, — 
Cheatham combining the resistless impetuosity of a 
Frenchman in a charge, with the bull-dog grip of an 
Englishman or Russian, when told to hold a position 
despite whatever odds are hurled against him ; and 
Cleburne, with the fiery gallantry of an Irishman,* 
as he is, in assault sweeping everything before him 

'■' Cleburne was Irisli by birth and raising, t%\t he was of Englisli 
parentage. 



22 



KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 



like a torrado; and shooting out, if I may use the 
comparisou, the fervid heat of an iron furnace 
against all who attempt to penetrate whatever 
stronghold he is directed to occupy. 




"Then beginning this side of the Marietta and 
Dallas wagon road, within less than a mile from 
here and following the line up this way, is the divi- 
sion of General Bate, of Tennessee; while right 
adjoining him, and coming up to the very foot of 
the mountain beneatl^ us, is your Georgia general, 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 23 

Wm. H. T. Walker, a comparatively small man in 
stature, but one who could give Julius Ca'sar 
some lessons in courage if the great Roman were 
alive to-day. These four divisions compose Gen- 
eral Hardee's corps. 

"Then General French's division starts near the 
foot of the mountain and comes up to where we are, 
and runs along before us around the side of the 
mountain, and thence crosses the ravine to our 
right and up almost to the very summit of Great 
Kennesaw over yonder, where he joins General 
Walthall, whose courage is the admiration of the 
army ; thence, as we go down the mountain to its 
base we could see, if we were on Big Kennesaw, 
where Featherston's division ends beyond the 
Western & Atlantic Railroad, and Wheeler's dis- 
mounted cavalry occupies the trenches which up to 
yesterday General Hood's corps have held, and 
which extend tor nearly a mile east of here ; but 
General Hood'scommand has been transferred* from 

*"As the extension of tlie Federal army toward the Chattahoo- 
chee made a corresponding one necessary on our part, Hood's 
corps was transferred from the right to the Marietta and Powder 
Spring road, his right near the south of Cheatham's left. General 
Hood was instructed to endeavor to prevent any progress of the 
Federal right toward the railroad, the course of which was nearly 
parallel to our left and centre. Our position, consequently, was a 
very hazardous one." — Johnston's Narrative, page a39. 

"Johnston had begun to be concerned for the Marietta and 
Powder Spring road, for Hooker's right was close to it, and Scho- 
tield's movements were threatening to put him astride of it. 
Hardee had stretched his lines quite as (ar as was sale, and the 
Confederate commander determined to move the whole of Hood's 
corps from the right to the left flank. Ordering Wheeler to show 
a bold front and make as strong a fight with his dismounted cav- 
alry as he could, Johnston lett these, with such help as could be 
got by stretching Loring's corps to the right, to till the trenches 
out of which Hood was drawn. This movement was made in the 
night of the 21st. ■■' ■■' '■'■ It is uncertain to what degree Loring's 
corps had been extended to Johnston's right to supjily the place 
from which Hood had been taken; but it'is hardly credible that 



24 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

tliat position to our extreme left, and occupies a 
iine of works which run probably a mile or two 
southward. He had a pretty tough fight down 
yonder yesterday near Ivolb's farm, and I am sorry 
to say we got the worst of it. The Yankees, you 
see, are swinging to their right and to our left 
which is south of us. They are attempting to get 
possession of the railroad in our rear, and all of 
General Johnston's anxiety now, I think, is to 
maintain his communications. We must protect 
the railroad or we cannot hold Marietta and Kenne- 
saw Mountain." 

"God grant that they may never secure a further 
lodgement on our State road ! " said Miss Harper, 
"for Kennesaw, the citadel of Georgia, must be 
held, or the waves of war's tempest will dash 
around Atlanta itself." 

"Yes; that is true," said Captain Ward, "if Ken- 
nesaw is given up Atlanta will have the enemy at 
her doors. And, speaking of Atlanta, now look to 
the southeast, and you can plainly see the church 
spires and the smoke from the foundries in Atlanta, 
twenty miles distant. There is the goal of Sher- 
man's ambition. There is the heart of the Con- 
federacy; and if the Yankees can pierce it, the 

Wheeler's cavalry alone had been able to impose upon Mcl'herson, 
who eertainly heUeved and reported that the intrenchnienti in his 
front were held by infantrv."— Cox's ' Atlanta," pp. IdiS, 115. 

It may be "hardly credible," but Wheeler's cavalry did 
"impose iipon McPherson'' nevertheless. 

I'eatlierston's division of Loring's corps vras extended from 
the Western A- Atlantic Railroad, where its right originally rested, 
only about a louple of hundred yards east of it, and the rest of the 
entrenchments of Hood's corps were held by Wheeler's dis- 
mounted cavalrv. 



26 KENNESAWS BOMBARDMENT. 

South will then receive her most desperate wound. "^ 

"What mountain is that which rises 'solitary and 
alone' out of the plain to the left of Atlanta?" asked 
Miss Harper. 

"That is Stone Mountain," said Captain Ward, 
"one of Georgia's curiosities. See, it sits upon the 
level horizon like a huge cone or helmet." 

"Yes, sir," answered the young lady, "I now 
remember it well." 

"And over to the east, beyond Big Kennesaw 
some five miles or more, is Black Jack Mountain 
with its several crests. Then look, too, to the 
north at those high peaks which pierce the horizon. 
Those are the Allatoona Mountains. If you will 
examine closely, you can see a depression in the 
ridge just this side of the mountains. That is 
Allatoona Fass, an artificial cut over a hundred fpet 
deep, through which the Western & Atlantic rail- 
road emerges from the mountain fastnesses into the 
open country on this side. All the desperate fight- 
ing which we had in the wilderness around New 
Hope Church was caused by Sherman's flank move- 
ment there, which was intended to force us to give 
up the Allatoona Pass. 

"The fighting was the most desperate and bloody 
which we have had since the campaign opened ; 
but Sherman accomplished his purpose by making 
the line too long for us to hold with our inferior 
numbers, and we fell back to Kennesaw. 

"The trains, with supplies for the Yankee army, 
now come through the pass and down to Big 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 27 

Shanty, which you see over yonder about six miles 
to the north, but for the present, at least. General 
Johnston says to them, 'Thus far and no farther.' 

"Ah! by the way, Miss Harper," said Captain 
Ward, '-direct the field-glass almost immediately 
south of us to that house in a grove just by the 
Dallas road from Marietta, and in the suburbs of 
Marietta. That is Mr. Kirkpatrick's house, which 
is General Johnston's headquarters." 

"Oh, Captain Ward," said Jack, "the Yankees 
are down there all along the front of our men, ain't 
they?" 

"Yes, Jack," replied Captaiji Ward, "it is too 
true that they are ; and they are very close neigh- 
bors, too. We had much rather have their room 
than their company;" — then turning to Miss Har- 
per, he continued : 

"Right in front of our line, and not more than 
some three or four hundred yards distant on an 
average, the Yankee army is maintaining its death- 
grapple with ours. Look and see, almost as far as 
the eye can reach to the southwest, those white dots 
on the earth show the thousands of tents of the 
Yankee army. You observe they come in a sort 
of irregular line up from the south to the west, 
then make an angle and whiten the fields and 
forests below us on the north. Occasionally you 
see hundreds of them apparently grouped together 
like a town. These are where some divisions are 
in reserve, instead of being located in line of battle 
behind regular works. There must be at least ten 



28 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

thousand of them iu reach of the eye. Tlieu 
notice the white specks which are moving in long 
lines. Those are the Yankee wagon-trains. There 
are some ambulances for the wounded among them 
which our boys make them have a good deal of use 
for. Down yonder to the south in front of Cheat- 
ham's and part of Cleburne's lines is Hooker's 
corps, — 'Fighting Joe' Hooker, as the Yankees call 
him, and it must be admitted that he is a pretty 
tough fighter; but he has met his match without 
any question when he faces our redoubtable Ten- 
nesseean and the 'Confederate Irishman,' as the 
Yankees call Cleburne. Up at Ringgold, just 
two days after our defeat at Missionary Ridge, 
Cleburne gave Hooker a whipping which will go 
down to history. Hooker, by the way, has the only 
corps of eastern troops who are in Sherman's army. 
The rest are western men; and we find the western 
pioneers are generally harder fighters than ea-tern 
shop-clerks; but Hooker partially counteracts that 
by his personal skill and dash. 

"Thence on Hooker's left, and coming up this 
way, is Palmer's corps. They are good fighters, 
too, and we have our hands full holding them oflf; 
but they have not made such progress as they must 
naturally desire, even if they have overwhelm- 
ing numbers. Further up this way, and almost 
beneath us, is the Fourih Corps, which General 
Howard commands. He is the one, you know, 
that Pat Cleburne administered such a terrible 
drubbing to, over near New Hope Church and 



30 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

Pickett's Mill on the 27th of last mooth, and, by 
the way, that was northwest of here, to the right of 
Lost Mountain, which you see rising so promi- 
nently over yonder. 

"Cleburne was on our right up there, and the 
Yankees were trying to flank us that evening, and 
he was ordered to check the movement at all haz- 
ards. He took position in the forest on the hill- 
side, and the Yankees came down the opposite hill 
and up that one in six lines. They marched up 
the ascending slope until all at once their front line 
found itself facing Cleburne's men in the open 
forest. There was not the sign of a breastwork 
occupied by either. Cleburne made his men hold 
their fire until the Yankees had come up to within 
about fifteen paces of them, and then gave the 
order. Such a destructive volley has scarcely ever 
been seen in warfare. It is said that out of several 
hundred men only seven were left standing. The 
next column came up; but our boys had gotten 
ready again, and felled nearly every one of them 
with the second volley. Then they had it hot and 
heavy for awhile; but the Yankees were utterly 
routed." 

"Then we gave them the worst kind of a beating, 
didn't we, Captain Ward?" said Jack. 

"Yes, Jack," answered Captain Ward, laughing 
heartily, "we gave them as bad a beating as they 
ever had;" and, continuing, he said, "Down in 
front of the mountain, and joining Howard's corps 
on the left, is Logan's, which extends, fronting us, 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 31 

to and across the Western & Atlantic Railroad, 
•which crosses Noonday valley on that huge red 
"embankment you see down yonder ; and on that 
little rise which you observe just east of the rail- 
road, the .Yankees in his command are constructing 
a casemated battery which, I fear, will worry us a 
great deal." * 

"What is a casemated battery?" inquired Miss 
Harper. 

"Why, it is one which is covered up. They first 
make entrenchments and put their cannon in them, 
and then build a framework of logs above, and on 
the top they place a timber roof over all these, and 
on this roof they pile a thick layer of earth, so that 
a shell from above falling upon it, makes practically 

From Report of Gen. P. J. Osterhaus. 

<= "These sharpshooters had been annoying the artillerists and 
infantry in my main works considerably. ■•■ ■' ■■' In following up 
the enemy, however, it was found that he had only fallen back 
about a mile into a second line of works running along the crest of 
Kennesaw and on the slope east and west, thus protecting the town 
of Marietta about three miles in their rear. =•' =■' '■= On the '20th 
of June, in pursuance to orders received, Col. Williamson's (2nd) 
Brigade deployed on the crest of the hill to the right of the second 
division, where he entrenched himself. This position was in the 
direct front of the rebel batteries placed on the very summit of 
Big Kennesaw, and exposed to their plunging fire. Between the 
riglit of Col. Williamson's line and the (Western & Atlantic) rail- 
road, which here runs through a gap in the mountains, was a con- 
siderable interval. "•■= * =■' 

"In order to resist the artillery fire which the enemy con- 
stantly kept up from his batteries (as well as musketry fire from 
the rifle pits on the slope of the mountain) while these lines were 
Iseing established, I built two casemated batteries for my rifled 
guns (two 3-ineh Rodman and two 20-pound Parrotts." 

Gen. Osterhaus adds, regarding the operations of June 23d : 
"I opened fire from these batteries, and with such precision that 
the mountain batteries were not only silenced whenever they 
opened, but were entirely withdrawn June 25th." 

This last statement was either an intentional fiction or a care- 
less mistake; for these batteries were not withd'awn until the 
night of July 2nd, and, in fact, during a part of that dqjr (July 2nd) 
they maintained, for some two hours or more, a very hot bombard- 
ment upon the Federal position below. 



32 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

no impression. We have either to fire right into a 
port-hole or our discharge goes for nothing. From 
this elevation, or from a long distance, a shot will 
not enter a casemated battery. 

"Over on this line to the east of the railroad, 
fronting Great Kennesaw and extending east of it, 
is Blair's corps, of McPherson's army, as we under- 
stand it. They only arrived at the front and reen- 
forced Sherman's grand army last week. Several days 
ago they made an impetuous attack upon and cap- 
tured an entire regiment of our boys. The men on 
top of the mountain saw the whole thing; but there 
was no means of signaling them to retreat. * 

"And that reminds me, look yonder to the sum- 
mit of Great Kennesaw, Miss Harper, see that red 
flag which the man on top of the rock is waving as 
against the sky. That is our signal flag. That is 
now being watched through field-glasses from Mari- 
etta and from several other points. The man is 
giving information of the Yankee army's movements 
as seen from the mountain top. 

•:="0n the 15th we advanced our general lines, intending to 
attack at any weak point discovered between Kennesaw and Pine 
Mountain; but Pine Mountain was found to be abandoned, and 
Johnston had contracted li's front somewhat, on a direct line, con- 
necting Ken' esaw with Lost Mountain. Thomas and Schofield 
thereby gained about two miles of most difficult country, and 
McPherson's left lapped well around the north end of Kennesaw. 
We captured a good many prisoners, among them a whole infantry 
regimt-nt, the Fourteenth Alabama, three hundred and twenty 
strong." — Sherman's Memoirs, Vol. II, page 54. 

An uncle of the author was on the mountain top and, through 
a field-glass, saw the Federals surround this regiment (the 
Fortieth, instead of the Fourteenth, Alabama) in the forest, and 
observed them throw down their arms in surrender, and march 
off to the rear of the Federal position, under guard. 

"Oh! iww we did wish," said he to the author, "when we savf 
the Yankees eirclmg through the woods on either side to get 
behind them, that we had some means of signaling to them from 
the mountain top, to let them know their danger." 



waej:ng up the batteries. 



33 



"A few days ago I remember his message was 
one which brought poignaDt grief to every man in 
the army. It was the information that our grand 
Bishop-General Polk had just been killed on the 
summit of Pine Mountain. The information was 
signalled from the station on Pine Mountain to that 
on Kennesaw, and thence repeated to the other 




-■5-■^ V-- 



DEATH OF GENERAL POLK. 

stations around here. Ah ! that was worse than a 
killing in battle, — that was a tragedy." 



34 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

"Yes," exclaimed Miss Harper with a shudder, 
"that was war's most awful tragedy. May God 
have mercy upon the hands that did it!" 

"After his death," continued Captain Ward, 
"his remains were brought down to the Hardage 
house, which you see in that clump of trees yonder 
to the northwest, and scarcely a half mile from the 
western end of the mountain. The Burnt Hickory 
road from Marietta runs right by the house. The 
body of the noble old man lay in an ambulance 
under a grand oak tree for a couple of hours before 
they got everything ready and carried it to Marietta 
to send to Augusta for burial." 

"Yes," said Miss Harper," "I remember coming 
up from Atlanta on the train several days ago, and 
the conductor, Mr. Sanford Bell, was telling me 
that the Bishop's remains were carried down to 
Atlanta on his train." 

"But let us go forward a little," said the captain, 
"and we can look immediately down the mountain 
side on the north. Hear that whistle! and look 
yonder. Miss Harper, toward Big Shanty. See the 
train of cars coming down the Western & Atlan- 
tic Railroad, in the rear of the Yankee lines and 
toward the mountain. Ah, the rascals! the very 
same railroad which is our sole dependence for sup- 
plies from the south is also their sole means of 
communication with the north. Where we have it, 
it is our salvation, and where they have it, it is one 
of the strongest weapons against us. Their every 
great movement heretofore has been for the purpose 



WAKING UP THE BATTEKTES. 35 

of breaking it in our rear, and thus paralyzing us; 
and we could afford to give almost a fourth of our 
army if we could ruin it in their rear. 

"And, by the way, speaking of the railroad 
reminds me of an achievement by a Yankee engi- 
neer several days ago, which, although it chagrined 
us a good deal at the time, yet, I must confess, 
appeals more highly to our admiration than to our 
resentment. 

"While a number of us were strengthening our 
works on the mountain, and otherwise occupying 
our time as profitably as soldiers on the lookout can, 
some one called our attention to a locomotive 
which was coming down from the direction of Big 
Shanty toward the mountain. 

" 'What are they after?' was the general inquiry, 
'is it bearing a flag of truce ? ' 

"Through our field-glasses several of us could 
see the engine as it came at the rate of six or eight 
miles an hour toward our lines. 

"Our soldiers in the breastworks could he ob- 
served getting upon the parapets in swarms, and 
we could imagine the curiosity they felt at seeing 
the Yankee locomotive commg straight forward, as 
if its engineer was trying to get away from old 
Sherman and bring a first-class prize with him as 
an offering of loyalty to us. 

"Suddenly he began to slow down, and within 
less than a minute the engine stopped, apparently 
within scarcely a hundred yards in front of our 
works. 



36 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

"We then saw her begin to back toward the 
Yankee lines, after her engineer had first made her 
give a saucy, shrill whistle which was plainly heard 
by every man up here. 

"The next instant we could see an irregular suc- 
cession of puffs of smoke breaking forth from all 
along our breastworks as far as they were within 
range or sight of her, and a moment afterward the 
rattling sound of musketry was faintly heard from 
below. 

'"Spying our works, by jingo!' yelled a soldier 
up here, and another added, 'Ain't that the most 
audacious trick you ever saw a Yankee plfy?' 

"Another shrill blast of the whistle was heard, as 
the engine began accelerating her backward motion 
every instant. 

"All at once the boom of a cannon was heard, 
and we saw the cloud of smoke arising from that 
high hill on the right of the railroad, which is 
called Brush Mountain, and a smaller cloud and 
report right beyond the now flying locomotive told 
us that a shell had been sent after her by one of 
our batteries, 

"The example was contagious, and from all 
along the top of the mountain the yell arose, 'Open 
fire upon the impudent scoundrels, and blow their 
engine up.' 

"Every artilleryman, without needing orders, 
ran to the guns, and, before a minute had elapsed, 
one of Guibor's guns banged away and sent a shell 
after her. But, gracious! the shell missed her fully 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 37 

three hundred yards. For once in his life Sam 
Kennard made a bad shot. 

"The rest of us followed suit, and the loud reports 
irom Big Kennesaw told that the artillery over 
there was also after her. 

"We could see the smoke from the explosion of 
our shells and from those on the hills below, but 
I don't think a single one struck within a hun- 
dred yards of the engine. The Yankee escaped, 
and no doubt was a great hero in his camp, — and 
deservedly so I must admit, for it was certainly a 
most daring deed, and one which calls for the 
applause of all brave men. 

"We were naturally a little fretted at the success 
of the fellow in coming almost into our lines and 
then giving us the slip, and in the most saucy man- 
ner too ; but next morning we felt somewhat dis- 
comfited when some one told us that a Yankee 
picket who had been captured, had stated that the 
engineer and an officer, named Potter, had been 
sent down toward our lines in the locomotive, by 
General Sherman's orders, to draw our fire and 
determine the location of our guns on the mountain 
and among the hills. He said they were in great 
glee over the success of the venture. 

"You see that was practically the first pass they 
had made at us since we abandoned the New Hope 
Church line of defense and assumed this at Ken- 
nesaw Mountain, hence the development of the 
location of our new line was an important matter 
for them. Their locomotive scheme beat sending 



38 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMEIST. 

forward several thousand men and running them 
into an ambush, or at least getting them caught 
between a cross fire from strong works such as 
we have. 

"However, if it was any source of gratification to 
them, they are welcome to it, for they have not had 
any success worth bragging about since they have 
been fighting around Kennesaw, unless we except 
General Hood's defeat below here yesterday. 
Hood's rashness and independence of action have, 
on two or three occasions during the campaign, 
amounted almost to insubordination. Oh, if Pat 
Cleburne or Cheatham were only in command of 
that corps, instead of Hood, we would have every 
reason to be satisfied ! I have heard it intimated 
that General Hood is quietly intriguing for the 
command of the army in General Johnston's stead* 
Woe be to the army, the cause and the country 
if he succeeds ! 

"Ah! but look down yonder, Miss Harper, ta 
the right of Big Kennesaw, and close to its base. 
See that multitude of white spots, some ot them 
moving about in that open field. That is our 
wagon train. It has been placed, as you see, be- 
hind the mountain ; but since the Yankees began 
throwing shells over the summit some two or three 
days ago they have caused a good deal ot confusion 
down there. General Walthall was speaking of it 
last night, and laughingly remarked about the 
shells, which exploded in the air and scattered their 
fragments promiscuously below, 'Whenever they 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 39 

fail to hit a man they frighten a mule, consequently 
the wagon train is in an uproar half the time.'" 

"But, oh! what is the matter with those poor 
fellows who are lying on the ground, while their 
comrades seem trying to make them comfortable?" 
asked Miss Harper. 

"There has been considerable sickness in our 
division, as well as others recently," said Captain 
Ward. "The hot weather, night marches, expos- 
ure to heavy rains, loss of sleep and the lack of 
vegetables, and the consequent diet of bread and 
bacon only has told on them. I have, in fact 
for several days, been sick myself, and came on 
duty this morning for the first time in a week, and, 
to tell the truth, ought not to have come to-day; 
but I felt that I ought to be at my post if it were 
possible. General Johnston is appealing to the 
people to send us vegetables, and using every means 
in his power to remedy the evil. Ah ! the general 
public does not appreciate how nobly he watches 
over his soldiers; but we see it evidenced by a 
dozen or more proofs every day. Not only does he 
endeavor to prevent any useless sacrifice of the lives 
of his men, but he constantly attempts to keep them 
healthy, and I can safely say that nine-tenths of the 
men in this army have the most unbounded con- 
fidence in their commander. In fact, I have never 
seen or heard of an army which was so devoted to 
its leader." 

"Oh, Captain, just listen to those cannon firing 



40 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

over yonder to the west; let's go there and see 
what's the matter," exclaimed Jack eagerly. 

"Yes," said Captain Ward, "there is heavy firing 
going on below the foot of the mountain, on the 
west; I have been noticing the sound of the cannon 
for some minutes; but it is about a mile from 
here and cannot affect us on the mountain top. 
But let us go over toward the western slope and 
watch it. General French, Major Storrs and a 
number of others have walked that way. And 
I should like to introduce you to General French 
and Major Storrs. They are both such perfect 
gentlemen, as well as splendid commanders." 

"Oh! Captain, is it safe to go?" asked Miss Har- 
per. "Had we better do so?" 

"There is no danger at all up here, Miss Harper," 
he answered, "the fightmg is on the hills about six 
hundred feet below us, and fully a mile away from 
the foot of the mountain." 

They walked down the crest, and at one point 
behind Guibor's battery, the captain remarked : 

"Here was where Lieutenant McBride was killed 
by a Yankee cannon shot last Saturday. He was 
at the time in command of this battery, Captain 
Guibor being absent, as he still is, from sickness." 

"General Johnston sent orders for the batteries 
on Kennesaw Mountain to open actively on the 
enemy and draw their fire, and thus develop their 
position and the number of their pieces of artillery. 

"This we did, and we soon had a considerable 
bombardment directed against us from along their 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 41 

line. In the midst of this, Major Storrs got upon a 
large rock, which I will show you to the west of us, 
to count their guns. He was thus occupied for 
about a half hour, and, Irom counting them over 
carefully several times, found that we were under 
fire from one hundred and lorty cannon. One of 
their missiles struck McBride and killed him. 
Poor fellow ! he was a splendid officer and a most 
noble gentleman. He was one who was always 
ready for any emergency ; but his is now the soldier's 
last sleep: he has fought his last fight and the 
reveille will awake him no more. But to change 
the subject a minute," added the captain, "here is 
my battery near the end of the peak. I have four 
Napoleons, as they are called. You see them here 
behind the parapets of rock which we have piled up 
on the otherwise almost naked surface of granite ; 
and I suppose you have, within the past three days, 
seen the smoke of our guns even from the windows 
of your t ome in Marietta." 

They soon reached the western c^d of the peak, 
and stood upon an immense bald, rocky formation 
which was its extreme point. From here the de- 
scent was very steep, and there was an unobstructed 
view for miles to the west and south. General 
French and Major Storrs wjre standing here with 
General Cockrell and General Ector, the latter of 
whom had just returned from a visit to General 
Johnston's headquarters; and, as Captui Ward 
and his party came up, General French who stood 
facing her, bowed very politely to the young lady, 



42 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

and Captain Ward immediately introduced her to 
the three officers. 

General French remarked, "This reminds me of 
a visit of one of the Graces to Olympu?*, the home 
of the thunder-clouds." 

"Yes," said Miss Harper, "and since I have 
gotten up here, I have thought for twenty times or 
more that the Grace had better have staid at home 
and left Mars alone to associate with Jupiter." 

"Oh, well," said General French, with a laugh, 
"there have been things done which were more 
imprudent than this." 

"And you can say another thing, Miss Harper," 
said General Cockrell, "and that is that very few 
ladies in Georgia have looked down upon a battle, 
as you are now doing." 

"And," said General Ector, "if our boys down 
yonder only knew how fair a face was directed 
toward them from up here almost among the clouds, 
they would fight as they have hardly ever fought 
before. You are observing what very few ladies 
have ever had equal chances of seeing." 

"Yes," added Major Storrs, "there are very few 
ladies who have witnessed so fierce a bombard- 
ment from opposing batteries without being in any 
danger. " 

"Here we are up on the eagle's perch," said 
Captain Ward, "and we can, without fear, glance 
downward upon the dangers of those who are 
hundreds of feet below us." 

"But," said Miss Harper, as she looked back at 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 43 

one of Captain Ward's pieces of artillery, "we are, 
as General French said a minute or so ago, on 
Georgia's Olympus whence the thunderbolts dart." 

"Well," answered Captain Ward, "I hope the 
Yankees will think they are worse than thunder- 
bolts by the time I get an opportunity to open 
upon them." 

"But, look, Miss Harper," said General French, 
"see, down to the west of us, the dense clouds of 
smoke which are rising from our lines and those of 
the Yankees. There you wiU notice those quick 
puffs which burst forth as from the earth. The 
sound is like near thunder. The Yankees have 
over thirty pieces of artillery concentrated against 
a portion of our lines. Now look through this 
glass, and you can see strong columns of the enemy 
advancing under cover of that heavy bombardment, 
and they are driving in our skirnaishers. Those 
little whiffs of smoke which from up here appear no 
larger than the pufi from a cigar, are the discharges 
from our skirmish line. There, they come in pretty 
regular array. You see the heavy work which is 
being done by our batteries. Those are on our 
main line, and the Yankees had as well give up 
any attempt against that." * 

*"JuNE 23. — In accordance with request of General Thomas 
I tried an intrenched height in front of General Newton's and 
Stanley's position, it being doubted whether or not this was a 
position of the enemy's main line. I opened upon it a concen- 
trated artillery fire from as many guns as I could bring to bear, 
and immediately afterwards advanced a strong skirmish line, 
which drove th° enemy within his vporks and developed a heavy 



artillery and musketry fire. By this operation I advanced our 
lines, particularly on the extreme right, to very close proximity to 
the rebel works. These proved to be hii main lines, covereci by 



troublesome abatis and other entanglements." — Gen. O. O. How- 
ard's Report of Operations of the Fourth Army Corps. 



44 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

They gazed intently at the exciting melee in the 
woods far below them, the scene being somewhat 
obscured, however, by the smoke, and then, as the 
little force of Confederates was seen retreating in 
groups, firing as they fled before the storm of 
shells and the heavy infantry lines. Miss Haiper 
exclaimed : 

"Oh! the sound of the guns is terrible. Do you 
really think our soldiers will be able to hold our 
position? See how strong the Yankee line is, com- 
pared with ours." 

"Yes, but if you were down there and could see 
our men, you would not have any fear that the 
Yankee column which is now moving against it, 
would be able to break it," answered General 
French. 

They stood for nearly a quarter of an hour longer, 
observing the fight which was going on. This was 
principally, however, an artillery duel, with the 
exception that the Federals had moved forward 
under cover of the fire of about thirty pieces of 
artillery and had somewhat advanced their position 
toward the Confederate main works. 

"Captain Ward, what is that man doing?" asked 
Jack, pointing to a soldier who was sitting on a 
large rock with a pencil and a sheet of paper, 
intently surveying the panorama below, and leis- 
urely sketching it. 

"Ah!" answered the captain, "he is drawing a 
picture of the fight. Jack. Some of our soldiers 
are apt artists." 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 45 

"Yes," said the soldier with a smile, "but it's a 
safe disciple of art I am this time, as I am not 
under fire, but securely perched above the fire. 
' Tomada en gloho' (taken from a balloon) the Span- 
iards say of some panoramic pictures taken mid-air 
by venturesome photographers ; but I am beating 
them, for I have a firmer foundation to rest my 
easel on." 

"Let me see," said Miss Harper, leaning over 
and surveying his sketch, "upon my word, you 
have made such a true picture. There is Lost 
Mountain on the horizon, then the undulating hills, 
and below us is the open field at the end of 
the mountain, and the dotted lines showing the 
advancing columns of soldiers and the little clouds 
of smoke. There is everything, except the sound." 

"Thank you kindly. Miss," answered the soldier 
with a bow, "I will always be proud of the compli- 
ment." 

General French then remarked, "Well, I think 
that we have seen the termination of to-day's fight. 
The enemy have no idea of an assault at present 
upon our line, and this is merely the cover to a 
partial forward movement." 

Captain Ward exclaimed, "Yes, that's so. Now 
Miss Harper, let us go back to the middle of the 
peak, and see how matters are getting along there. 
I wish to point out one or two other objects of 
interest to you." 

With a polite bow to General French and the 



46 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

other officers, Captain Ward and his party then 
left them. 

"Captain Ward, is that man waving his flag [so 
as to show the old Yankees that we have still got 
the mountain and they can't take it away from us?" 
asked Jack, as they observed an officer on top of a 
high rock near the western end of the mountain 
and just where it began sloping down toward the 
north. 

"No, Jack, not exactly that," ansAvered the cap- 
tain; "but he is on observation here, and is signal- 
ing to our men on the front side of Big Kennesaw, 
and to the observation post west of Marietta, and 
givin? them the news of the progress and result of 
the fight down below us. I am glad it is favorable 
news to-day. 

"That is what we call 'Observation Rock.' 
From it Major Storrs counted the Yankee guns, as 
I was saying a while ago ; and every day the officer 
on observation duty on this end of the mountain 
takes his position upon it, and from there can see 
everything to the north and west, and also to the 
south. You could, if you were upon it, look over 
the backbone of the mountain where we are, and 
trace our line, with a field-glass, clear down to the 
hill where General Cheatham's division rests, nearly 
three miles to the south, besides noticing the gen- 
eral level of the country for miles beyond." 

"What a queer rock it is!" said Jack, "you can 
look under it and see the hills and fields and the 
Yankee tents in front of the mountain." 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 



47 



"Yes," answered the captain, "the tempests of a 
great many ages have washed the under side of it 
until it seems to rest upon the mountain top as if 




,^}^I^Ui,^ 



it was not there originally, but had been thrown up 
here by some great giant's hand." 

"Whoopee!" exclaimed Jack with some enthusi- 
asm, "Jack, the giant-killer, would have had a 
hard time killing him, wouldn't he?" 



48 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

"I should think he would have," replied Captain 
Ward with a smile; "but let us go." 

"This is your battery, I believe you said a few 
minutes ago, did you not, Captain Ward?" asked 
the young lady, as they were passing the guns near 
the western end of the crest. 

"Yes, these are mine, — four Napoleons," replied 
the captain, "and just beyond me to the east are 
three Napoleon guns of Guibor's Missouri battery. 
Their other gun was damaged by a Yankee shot, 
and has been sent to Marietta for repairs. These 
Missourians are magnificent fighters, and they are 
adepts in handling this battery. 

"Then, on their right, and near the northeastern 
end of Little Kennesaw, is a section, or two guns, 
of Hoskins' Mississippi battery. They have fine 
pieces, and they deserve them. There are four 
brothers named Hoskins in this battery, one of 
whom, Captain Jim Hoskins, commands it. They 
are splendid soldiers, and theirs is very justly con- 
sidered one of our crack batteries. The other guns 
of this battery are down the western slope of the 
mountain, or rather of the hill below us which is 
really the continuation of the mountain." 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 49 



CHAPTER III. 

They soon reached the eastern end of the ridge 
and stood behind a long rock, over which they could 
look through a glass at the prospect below. 

"What are those men after, who are going down 
the mountain side with their guns?" inquired Miss 
Harper. 

"They are sharpshooters, who intend trying 
to pick ofl some of the men in that group in the 
field down in front of us," replied Captain Ward. 
^'I thought they had gone down some minutes ago; 
but they seem to have been delayed." 

"They were just getting ready," said a private 
standing by, "but now they're going to take a crack 
at the Yankees." 

"Oh, my! then let us get away from here. It 
would be terrible to witness the death of any 
person, even if an enemy," exclaimed the young 
lady, with a shudder. 

"No, Sis, let's see if they hit 'em," said Jack. 

"Oh, no indeed, let us at least get out of sight 
until this dreadful scene is over. I cannot remain 
longer," said his sister. 

"Well then, if you will go," answered the captain, 
"there is a large rock back yonder, behind which 



50 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

you can both find shelter from even the severest 
bombardment. Just take rhem down there, Minon, 
till we see what comes of this. If the Yankees 
don't get after Partridge, they can come back here 
within half an hour, and we will show them, in 
detail, war's most imposing panorama below us. 
It is well worth staying to see." 

"I think we had better return home!" replied 
Miss Harper. 

"No, Sis, you go back behind the rock, and 
I will stay with Captain Ward," said Jack. 

"Jack," said the captain, "you are now one of 
my soldiers; I detail you to protect your sister. 
Go back with her, — those are my orders." 

"All right, captain," was the reply, "but can't 
I come back after a while?" 

"You must not come till I tell you to do so," 
said the captain. 

Miss Mary smiled at the droll scene, and the 
captain's eye twinkled, while Jack with childish 
lack of guile took it all in sober earnestness. 

Minon then took the two behind the gigantic 
rock, and, spreading a blanket on the grass, ex- 
claimed, "Remain here, Miss Harper, and Jack, 
till I return. You are in no danger here." 

"All right; but if any trouble comes, you will 
see us safely home at once," answered the young 
lady. 

"Certainly, I will take care of you," exclaimed 
Minon, and then with a bow hastened back to hi& 
post at the guns. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 51 

Soon the sharp crack of a rifle rang out from 
amid the cliffs. 

About a minute later two others were heard. 

The venturesome Federals, however, were not 
observed as showing any concern. 

"Wait till you hear from Partridge," exclaimed 
Captain Ward to Captain Hoskins, who had ex- 
pressed a fear that they had not gotten the range ; 
""he's sheltered behind that big crag to the right." 

He had hardly spoken before "bang!" went 
Partridge's gun. 

"Ho! ho!" exclaimed Col. Young, who, like 
Captain Ward, was watching the scene through a 
field glass, "he's brought down the game." 

"Yes," added Captain Ward, "one of them has 
tiallen from his horse, and there is quite a flutter 
among the rest. They are getting back* into the 
woods in a hurry. But see that fellow galloping 
away toward the battery near the railroad this side 
of Noonday Creek." 

Another report of a sharpshooter's rifle inter- 
rupted, and Captain Ward added : 

"A first rate shot; he's tumbled him out of the 
saddle. I won't have to return that battery's com- 
pliments until they send another messenger of evil 
tidings to it." 

" That was Porter's shot. He winged the bird 
as it flew," said Lieutenant Murphy, of Guibor's 
battery, who was down the slope watching the ri- 
flemen. 



52 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

"Confound this atmosphere," exclaimed an artil- 
leryman, "it's so heavy that the smoke from those 
Enfield rifles hangs around the crags like cotton. 
Ihe Yankees can see it with their glasses, and they 
will get the range of our Partridge nest, and shell 
the boys behind cover." 

"That's so, Tom," said Colonel Young, "and 
I see two horsemen hurrying toward the battery." 

Just then Generals French and Cockrell and 
Colonel Barry joined the group in front of the para- 
pet, and the former asked, "Are the boys inter- 
fering with the curiosity seekers?" 

"Yes, General," replied Colonel Young, "they 
have only a minute ago scattered a party who were 
in the edge/)f that field down yonder. They shot 
down two of them." 

Three reports rang out in quick succession, and 
Colonel Barry remarked, "The music from the 
smaller instruments is beginning." 

"Yes, but wait a few minutes," said Captain 
Ward, "and you will hear the big bass drum. 
That battery down in front is going to open, 
if I mistake not." 

"Yes," added Captain Hoskins, "and as there is 
no telling how far this will spread, I'll hurry down 
to my two guns on the hill," and walked rapidly 
toward the west. 

A couple of minutes passed, during which the 
parapets were lined with officers and soldiers, whose 
attention had been attracted by the rifle shots. 

Suddenly a volume of white smoke burst forth 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES, 53 

from the top of the hill far below, and then the 
sullen boom of a cannon woke the air. 

"That's so, lock out for it!" exclaimed Col nel 
Barry, and a second later a puff of smoke arose from 
the forest growth about a hundred yards below, to 
the right, and the sharp report of an exploding shell 
rang out. 

"Pretty good," said General Cockrell, "'Hurrah 
for that gunner! he's come very near landing his 
very first charge in the midst of the boys." 

A derisive yell arose from the sharpshooters, and 
several other shots were fired by them. 

About a minute later two other guns in the Fed- 
eral battery opened upon them; but these fired 
wide of the mark, the shells falling fully two hun- 
dred yards from the sharpshooters' nest. 

Then the crack of a rifle succeeded, and oflBcers 
and men alike burst into a roar of laughter. 

"That's a magnificent duel," exclaimed Major 
Storrs, "a bunch of riflemen and a battery, over a 
half a mile apart, firing at each other." 

"It may be well if it is confined to them;" 
remarked General French, "but it is best to be 
prepared to reciprocate any gratuitous favors which 
those gunners may dispense for our benefit up here. 
Major, hadn't you better arrange for Captain Ward 
and Lieutenant Harris to silence that battery if it 
gets too familiar?" 

"Yes, General, Captain Ward has promised 
already to stand by the boys if they get into trou- 
ble," answered Major Storrs; and then, turning to 



54 KENNESAWS BOMBARDMENT. 

Captain. Ward, he remarked, "Captain, suppose 
you get ready for that fellow if he fires again." 

"All right. Major," said Captain Ward, "I'll try 
to fix him so that he won't send any more than one 
'R. S. V. P.' missive to us," then turning to E. R. 
Matthews, who carried the battery flag, he re- 
marked, "Matthews, fasten the colors to that stump 
of a sapling in front of the parapet. We want it 
in front of our guns, and in full view of the enemy 
for miles around." 

Just as he started toward one of the guns in his 
battery, which was about a hundred yards west 
from where they were standing, and had called 
three of his men to join him, three almost simulta- 
neous puflEs of smoke arose from the Federal bat- 
tery; and the reports had scarcely reached the ears 
.X those on the mountain top before two shells ex- 
ploded among the crags near the sharpshooters' den, 
and a third buried itself in the ground about thirty 
yards below General French and his party, and 
exploded, scattering earth, rocks and fragments on 
every side. 

"Well, gentlemen, you have received the invita- 
tion to the ball; I think you should accept it, and 
lead those chaps as lively a dance as 'old Dan 
Tucker,"' said General French to Major Storrs and 
the artillery captains. "We haven't a very great 
amount of artillery ammunition ; but we had better 
fire a few rounds and impress them with the fact 
that we are on the vigorous defensive." 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 55 

"Yes," said the major, "let the men come to 
their posts and prepare for action." 

A general hurrah followed, and the artillerymen 
hurried to their guns all along the line. 

"Ah, banner of beauty!" exclaimed the captain, 
pausing a moment and gazing at the flag of the 
Confederacy, as it fluttered in the breeze above his 
battery, with its blue cross and bright stars amid 
the square of red in the upper left hand corner and 
the snowy whiteness of the balance of it. "What 
nation," he added, "ever boasted a flag so chaste 
and elegant? How much prettier it is than the 
old stars and stripes! Whenever I look quietly 
at it, I find myself wishing that I were a Byron or 
a Scott, so that I might express in words the real 
poetry with which it lights up my soul. Yes, 
whether I look at the national flag or its child, the 
battle flag, I feel like calling down the benison of 
holy Heaven upon it and all who are true to it. 
May a gracious God bless the South and the flag of 
her love ! " 

"Yes," said Major Storrs, "that's the prettiest 
banner I ever beheld, and it is typical of our glori- 
ous Southland. Long may it wave, and long may 
she stand, the abode of liberty and happiness." 

"Those are all sentiments that each of us in- 
dorses," added Colonel Barry. 

General French, Major Storrs and Colonels 
Young and Barry joined Captain Ward, who had 
taken personal charge of one of the pieces. 

"Let me cut that fuse, Tom," said the captain to 



56 KENNE SAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

one of the men who had brought forward a shell, 
"I think a three seconds' length will just about get 
the range of that battery. Now, elevate her barely 
a span, boys: there, that's too much, — lower her, 
ah! now you've got it; now turn her a little to the 
left, — ha! she's right at last. Now, Cruse," said he, 
addressing his first lieutenant, who was very fleshy, 
and wore eye-glasses, "pull off your own eyes and 
try this field glass, and let me know just where my 
shell goes." 

Nearly half a minute succeeded, then, as Captain 
Ward himself pulled the lanyard, a cloud of smoke 
shot out, enveloping everything for yards around, 
and a deafening roar shook the mountain top and 
reverberated like thunder through the air far 
toward the Etowah Valley and the Allatoona Moun- 
tains. 

**A good shot. Captain Ward, you can't do that 
again," exclaimed General French, "you landed 
your shell right in the midst of that Yankee bat- 
tery; and that's a caisson that's exploded." 

"Yes," laughed Cruse, "when I was cashier in a 
bank I never handled money and made it fit the 
calculations any closer than you did that gun." 

A wild yell of applause arose from the artillery- 
men and the spectators. 

"Well, I'm prepared to admit," said Captain 
Ward, "that that was a fortunate accident, and 
that I couldn't do it again in twenty shots." 

"Golly, Mass John, dat was a noble shot!" ex- 
claimed Woodson, Captain Ward's negro cook, 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 57 

"efyougiv' 'em anudder one like dat dey'll want 
to git back ahind de Oostanauley for sho'. Sock it 
to 'em agin." 

"Yes, drat 'em," added Daily, General^French's 
cook, "dey broke my pans yestiddy wid one o' dar 
splodin' bumshells, an' I can't [cook good till I git 
some more. Smash 'em good wid de nex' shot." * 

"Now, let them have it again, boys," called 
Major Storrs, "that was a fine beginning; let the 
good work go on." 

"Hurrah for Joe Johnston and the Southern Con- 
federacy!" shouted the gunners, and, some three or 
four minutes later, from Guibor's and Ward's bat- 
teries three thunderous reports in quick succession 
rang out from Kennesaw's crest, and a lew seconds 
afterward three puiFs of smoke near the Federal 
battery and three explosions, "laint from farther 
distance borne," told that payment in their own 
coin had been tendered the enemy. 

An answer came back within a couple of minutes 
in a shell from the Federal battery, which struck 
about half way up the mountain side and exploded. 

"Ah! they're demoralized by your shot. Captain 
Ward," said General Cockrell, "that was rather 
wild." 

* "Thousands of their Parrott shells pass high over the moun- 
tain, and exploding at a great elevaiion, the alter part of the shell 
is arrested in its flight, and falling perpendicularly, comes into 
camp, and they have injured our tents. Last night I heard a 
peculiar "thug" on my tent, and a rattle of tin pans, and this 
morning my negro boy cook put his head into my tent and i.aid: 
"See here, "Master Sam, them, 'fernal Yanks done shot my pans 
lastnight. What am I going to do 'bout it ? " A rifle ball coming 
over the mountain, had fallen from a great height, and, perfor- 
ating the pars, had entered the ground.— From Gen. French's 
Diary during June, 1864. 



58 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

A rifle shot was now heard from Partridge's 
perch, and a general laugh again arose. 

"Hurrah for the sharpshooters!" said Colonel 
Samuels, "they're entitled to a part in this fight." 

Just at that moment from the hill behind the 
Western & Atlantic railroad, on the other side of 
Noonday Creek, a cloud of smoke arose, and an 
angry "boom!" shook the air. 

"Another Richmond in the field!" exclaimed 
Major Storrs. "They are not waiting to finish the 
casemating of that battery of Parrotts and Rodmans 
before trying to make it as offensive as possible 
to us." 

He had not ceased speaking ere the scream of a 
shell was heard above their heads, and, before the 
two darkey cooks had finished dodging toward the 
ground, the explosion was heard behind them, and, 
on looking around, the curling smoke amid the 
forest, some seven hundred yards south of the 
mountain top, showed how far the deadly missile 
had sped. 

"That was a bad one," said Colonel Samuels. 

"Regular pizen," exclaimed a soldier, "if that 
fellow don't cool ofi", we'll have to rub a wet sponge 
over his face." 

"Take care. Daily!" shouted a private who had 
seen the two darkeys hugging the ground with a 
desperate clutch, "them thar things with shucks to 
the'r tails are after you and Woodson. Thar's no 
mark for a Yankee shell like a nigger." 

"God almighty! boss, don't make fun of us now," 



WAKING UP THE BA.TTERIES. 59 

whispered "Woodson, "I'd give a thousand dollars 
if I had never heard tell of a Yankee." 

A roar of laughter ensued from the soldiers who 
heard this last remark, and Pat Quin, one of the 
crack shots of Guibor's battery, exclaimed, "Well 
now, I don't know how much that offer is worth, 
begorra, till you tell me whether you mean Con- 
federate money, Yankee greenbacks or the world's 
specie." 

"All of 'em, boss, an' copper too," answered 
Woodson, as he raised his head with a grin on his 
face, which reminded every one of the little boy in 
the graveyard who began whistling to keep his 
courage up. 

"Boom! boom!" again went Captain Ward's 
guns, and another shell struck near the first Fed- 
eral battery. Its companion, however, exploded in 
the air only about a hundred feet from the muzzle, 
and almost over the infantry line, which ran just 
below the summit. 

"There was bad powder in that one," said the 
captain, "that's one of our difficulties." 

Another cloud of smoke and another report arose 
from the battery across the railroad, and a Parrott 
shell struck the side of the mountain about a hun 
dred feet below the crest. 

"That means that. we are considered as entitled 
to respectful attention," said Major Storrs; "and 
that we reciprocate all courtesies in kind," he added, 
as another of Guibor's guns, aimed by Lieutenant 
Sam Kennard, went off, waking all the echoes of 



60 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

the mountain, and landing a shell close to the near- 
est Federal battery. 

Hardly a minute afterwards a sound, now some- 
what familiar, was heard to the west, and the inevi- 
table white smoke told that the warlike contagion 
was spreading. 

The next instant another shell flew, hissing like 
a snake, over the mountain, and, falling to the 
ground a half mile southward, exploded. 

"Aha!" exclaimed General Cockrell, "that bat- 
tery of twenty-pounder Parrott guns over behind 
the Hardage house has concluded to join the chorus. 
I'll go down and have Captain Hoskins to take it 
under his special charge." 

"Yes, gentlemen," said General French, "you 
had better prepare for a lively time. Everybody 
to his post, and be ready to open all the batteries." 

"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" came from several of 
the ofiicers, and then a wild "rebel yell" ran down 
the whole line, as the men left their exposed posi- 
tion on the north side of the mountain and went to 
their places behind the parapets. 

It was well they did, for the last man had just 
about gotten within shelter when from a hill east 
of the Lattimer place a couple of guns Avere fired, 
and a shell struck the cliff above Cockrell's works 
and exploded, scattering the rocks and fragments 
in fifty directions. The other buried itself in the 
earth just a few feet below and in front of Captain 
Ward's battery, and went off, enveloping the para- 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 61 

pet in smoke, and throwing mud, etc. , on every 
side. 

Almost co-ordinately the battery which had 
begun the racket, sent another shell over the moun- 
tain, and its explosion a few hundred yards beyond 
told everybody to "lie low." 

Ward's and Guibor's batteries now opened in a 
grand chorus, and Hoskins' two guns on the right 
took up the refrain, amid the cheers of the soldiery, 
till the mountain was crowned with uproar. 

This found its echo on the hills on either side oi 
the railroad, as the bursting shells whitened the 
atmosphere with thick smoke, and woke the forest 
around the Federal guns and gunners who had 
brought on the affray. 

But then almost simultaneously a half dozen bat- 
teries on the north and northwest, on either side of 
Noonday creek, joined their thunders with those of 
their comrades of tumult, and a shower of exploding 
shells and whirring solid shot fell below or flew 
screaming over the parapets on the mountain top. * 
"They must do better than that," said Major 
Storrs, "or it will be a pure waste of the raw mate- 
rial by the Yankee gunners. Now, gentlemen, 
show them how to fire. Give it to them like 
we did last Monday ! Hurrah for the batteries on 
Kennesaw ! " 

* June 23 —At 10 a. m., when all was quiet on the mountain, 
the enemy commenced a rapid artillery fiie from guns put in posi- 
tion during the night, and concentrated it on our guns on the 
mouniain. Yesterday we had it all our own way— to-day they are 
repaying us and the connonade is "fast and furious."— From Gen. 
French's Diary during June, 1864. 



62 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

"And hurrah for the sharpshooters! " yelled Part- 
ridge from the crags below. 




• .^-^^ SHARPSHOOTERS. 

"Yes, hurrah for the sharpshooters!" said Major 
Storrs good-humoredly, "even if they do get us 
into trouble occasionally." 

"Hurrah for Guibor's guns!" exclaimed Lieuten- 
ant Harris, "beat that if you can." 

"They'll have to try a good many times before 
they do it, lieutenant," said Colonel Young, who 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 63 

was lookiug through his field glass in the direction 
of Harris' shot, "You dropped that shell right 
into the midst of a column of Yankee cavalry, and 
I think you must have killed or wounded at least 
a dozen or so of them. Lord! how the rest are 
scattering. To say it's a stampede hardly describes 
it. Every fellow's going in a different direction, 
and every fellow seems trying to outrun a shell 
which he thinks, is after him particularly. Ha, 
ha, ha! I think at least twenty have been thrown, 
and are sprawling on the ground, and the horses, — 
well, nobody can catch them now. Your single 
shell has routed them as badly as Wheeler did 
Garrard* and his cavalry several days ago." 
"Ha, ha, ha, ha," went down the entire line. 

*"0n the aoih the most considerable cavalry affair of the cam- 
paign occurred on our right. The Confederate cftvalry on that 
flank, bemg attacked by that under General Garrard's command, 
repulsed the assailants, whom, as they were retiring, Wheeler 
charged with about a thousand men, and louted, capturing a hun- 
dred men and horses, and two standards. Fifty of the enemy's 
dead were counted on the field. The Confederate loss was fifte'en 
killed and fifty wounded."— Johnston's Narrative, page 339. 




64 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 



CHAPTER IV. 

"Minon," said Captain Ward, "you had better 
go back and tell Miss Harper and her little brother 
to stay closely behind that rock. They are safer 
there now than they would be descending the 
mountain ; for some one of those shells which are 
flying over the crest might explode, and strike them 
with a fragment. Let them remain sheltered where 
they are." 

The young sergeant hurried back, and found her 
in a state of much apprehension ; but she took in 
the situation and readily consented to comply with 
Captain Ward's suggestion. 

"But, oh! I do wish we had not come!" she ex- 
claimed, "this was so foolish a trip." 

"No, I am glad we came, Mr. Minon; ask Cap- 
tain Ward to please let me go out and see it," said 
Jack in a tone of great eagerness. 

"No, Jack, Captain Ward orders you to stay 
here and protect your sister," answered Minon, 
"and now I must hurry back," he added, bowing 
to Miss Harper. 

"God shield you from all harm!" she replied 
clasping her hands. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 65 

"Minon, where are Miss Harper and her little 
brother who were with you about a half hour ago?" 
asked General French who saw him as he returned. 

"They are back yonder behind the large rock, 
General," the young sergeant replied. 

"The mischief, they are! " exclaimed the general, 
"why what made you keep them here? — however, 
there's no need to discuss that now. Do you go 
at once and have some men to take those planks 
and poles which are around that ammunition chest, 
and lean against the rock behind them, so as to pro- 
tect them as much as possible from the explosion 
of shells. I think we are going to have a good 
many of them screaming around here within a few 
minutes, and it won't do for them to attempt now 
to go back to Marietta till things quiet down again." 

With a tip of his hat Minon hurried off to carry 
out the general's orders. 

Miss Harper was greatly agitated by these extra- 
ordinary preparations for her safety, and again ex- 
claimed, "What a foolish trip this was!" 

Jack, however, as usual, was equal to the occa- 
sion, and piped out, "Oh, don't be afraid. Sis; 
I'll stay here with you." 

Boom ! boom ! boom ! went the batteries on Ken- 
nesaw, and now the patches of smoke above the 
plain showed that the Confederates had turned their 
attention to several of the Federal challengers. 

"See," said Major Storrs, who had raised his field 
glass for a minute to watch the effect of the fire 
from his guns, "the inhabitants of the temporary 



66 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

city in the woods below us will find this rain some, 
w^hat worse for them than that other kind they had 
last night. Their sharpshooters whom I see at 
their customary devilment down youder will proba- 
bly seek shelter within a few minutes and some of 
their artillerymen may have occasion to wish that 
they had more casemates."* 

But over hill and forest from beyond the slopes 
lining N onday valley east of the railroad, to and 
beyond the Wallace house on the far west, thence 
along the line running southward, a chain of rising 
clouds of smoke, and angry reports, told that bat- 
tery after battery had opened upon the mountain. 
The most practical evidence to the Confederates, 
however, of this fact, was the tempest of Parrott 
shells, solid shot, and other deadly missiles which 
came crashing against the crags or flew hurtling 
through the air above them.* The shout of the 
war god had been heard ! 

"Withdraw the infantry from the breastworks 
in front. Colonel Barry," said General French; 
"I think this will be merely a bombardment from 
the batteries, and our men should not be needlessly 
exposed." 

"Yes, sir," answered Colonel Barry, and then 
sent orders for Sears' brigade to defile behind the 
breastworks toward the ravine on the east, so as 
to be sheltered by the mountain from the shells. 

*Kennesaw Mountain is no longer a place of resort, owing to 
The largo numbar of shells hourly sent there by the enemy. 

The view from there during the forcnoou was obstructed by a 
heavy fog, hanging like a pall over the valley beneath, and a large 
glass failed to pierce it and locate the position of the enemy. — 
Augusta Constitutionalist, June 23, 1864. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 67 

The command was obeyed in perfect order, and 
•within a few minutes there was no exposure to the 
Federal fiie, except that of artillerymen who were 
handling the batteries. 

These had hurried to their guns from one end of 
the summit to the other, and the enthusiastic energy 
with which they went at their work, was attested 
by the continuous explosions which appeared to 
almost shake the mountain, and the dense volumes 
of white smoke which, like a storm cloud, enveloped 
its towering crest. 

This was plainly visible in Atlanta, twenty miles 
distant, to hundreds of people who thronged the hill 
^t the western end of Alabama street, or climbed 
to the tops of buildings, or swarmed like bees on 
the Broad street bridge, and gazed with breathless 
interest at the smoking rrountain, and strained 
their ears to catch the booming sounds which, like 
distant thunder, kept shaking the air; while from 
the streets and windows of Marietta, which were 
filled by hundreds of citizens and soldiers, it is said 
to have presented a scene of grandeur, whose only 
parallel might be found in a volcanic eruption.* 
The smoke rising in tremendous columns high above 
the crest, the thunderous reports from the Confed- 
erate batteries, and the explosions, over toward the 

-•"From this time, June 20, until (he evening of the 20th, our 
position was not materially changed. Under direct fire from the 
rebel skirmishers, no man could expose himself without being 
a mark for their bullets. They kept our men closely confined to 
their trenches, and the only Variety they had was the constant 
succession of artillery duels between our batteries and those on 
the mountain top, which might be looked for at any time of the 
day or night; at times these assumed a degree of magnificence." 
— From Report of Major General A. Baird. 



68 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

town, of the Federal shells, which had darted 
through the war clouds, all told a tale of awe and 
magnificence. 

But if it was a magnificent spectacle to those 
who beheld it from their homes in Marietta, hardly 
two miles distant, it was one where tumult and 
danger walked hand in hand with grandeur, in the 
eyes of the men who stood behind the parapets and 
amid the crags on the crest of Kennesaw Mountain. 

The thick, sulphu:ous smoke from their own 
pieces enveloped everything around them in obscu- 
rity. This was lit up in quick succession by the 
flash of fire which burst forth with every dis- 
charge and, like lightning among the clouds, shot 
its glare for the instant all around. 

But the terrific majesty of the scene was exhibited 
in the explosion of the Federal shells, and the crash- 
ing of solid shot, above and amid the crags and 
rocky parapets behind which the Confederate guns 
were posted on the crown of the mountain. 

From one hundred and forty guns on the sur- 
rounding hills and forests Sherman's commanders 
had concentrated their fire upon the crest of Little 
Kennesaw.* 

* "There emphatically was such a bomliardment repeatedly. 
I do not know exactly upon how many days they opened with at 
least 140 guns, with their aim actually d'rectod to the crests of Big 
and Little Kennesaw; liut do not think it would be too mucli to 
say that this occurred on at least t^n separate days, and some- 
times we would rece ve two or three bombardments on one day. 

"Sometimes when I would fire a few rounds on some exposed 
body of the enemy, my nine guns would receive the concentrated 
fire of shot and shell from 140 guns or more, until a thousand or 
fifteen hundred projectiles had been thrown at us. The fire was 
absolutely terrific."— From letter written by Major Geo. S. S'orrs 
to the author. 



WAKING UP THE BA.TTERIES. 69 

For scores of yards downward the ground was 
torn up, and the cliffs were scarred. Hundreds of 
the messengers of wrath flew screaming over the 
heads of Major Storrs' cannoniers, and exploded far 
above or in the forests in the valley behind them. 
Others darted crashing through the trees on the 
summit, scattering the branches on every side, and 
bursting into myriad pieces, with spiteful flashes of 
fire and clouds of stifling smoke which hung like a 
pall of horror above the mountain. Yet others 
dashed against the tremendous bowlders on the 
summit, or struck the huge rocks which bad been, 
with patient labor, piled before the guns as a para- 
pet, and, exploding, spread destruction on every 
side. 

Here a poor fellow in Ward's battery had his 
head blown ofl*, and beside him were two others 
wounded by a bursting shell. A solid shot tore off* 
the arm of a man in Guibor's battery, while Hos- 
kins' battery had two wounded within a few min- 
utes. 

Henry O'Hara, of this battery, was with one of 
the two guns which were on the summit of the 
mountain. He had gone to the ammunition chest, 
and was bringinq- forward three charges of fixed 
ammunition* when a shell burst so close to him as 

'•' The Conff derates, while on (he summit of Kennesaw Moun- 
tain, protected their artillery ammunition by digging holes in the 
ground some thirty or forty feet behind the guns, and burying the 
ch'sts therein. Covering them with logs cut from the timber on 
and near the summit of the mountain, they thus secured very fair 
protection. Only one che.'t was thus provided for the supply of 
each gun. The "infantry brought the current supply up by hand 
as it was needed, and deposited it in the chests. From two to four 



70 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

to explode the nine pounds of powder in his arms. 
A terrific sheet of fire and smoke enveloped him, 
and, as he fell backward, some one exclaimed, 
"My God ! it's burnt him up ! " 




ASSISTING A COMRADE. 

His comrades rushed forward, seized him, and 

men were specially detailed from the infantry to bring the supply 
required for each gun. 

On Ihe hill Ireyond the western end cf Little Kennesaw, which 
was occupied by General Oockrell's brigade, Captain Jas. A. Hos- 
kins was in charge of his two gurs, which were posted there, and 
also the guns of Lumsden's Alabama battery. One day, subse- 
quent to that whose events are herein chronicled, three of Lums- 
den's chests were blown up by the Federal fire. They were within 
thirty feet of each other, and the result of the explosion, it is 
quite needless to say, was disastrous to the battery, and the fact 
of the occurrence, in spite of all the precautions to prevent it, 
furnishes one of the best evidences of the terrific nature of the 
Federal bombardment. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 71 

carried him to the rear. His clothes were badly 
burnt and his body, face and limbs blackened by 
the powder; but, as he stoutly asserted, he was 
"not done for yet," and within a few weeks was back 
on duty. 

"He was Irish," as some of the boys s id, "and 
you couldn't expect such a small matter as that 
to knock him out." 

But in the meanwhile with courage which might 
have excited the envy of Titans, the Confederates 
stood to their guns, and poured back a shower of 
shot and shell among the Federals on the hills 
below. The roar of their batteries from amid the 
clouds of smoke which enveloped the mountain top 
found its counterpart in the explosion of shells 
which darted like thunderbolts among the Federal 
camps and into the midst of the batteries which 
were hurling storms of destruction against them. 

Just at this period. General French, who was 
talking with Major Storrs and Col. Barry, noticfd, 
coming toward them, the sergeant who had been 
sent down to General Sears' headquarters. 

"Well, you've got back, I see," he remarked. 

"Yes, sir, I delivered your message to General 
Sears," answered the sergeant. 

"And what did he say?" asked the general. 

With a smile, after a slight pause, the sergeant 
answered : 

"He says to me, 'Go back and tell General 
French I'm not a mountain billy-goat to be jumping 
from cliff to cliff.'" 



72 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

A roar of laughter followed from the party, after 
which General French remarked : 

"If that message had have come from a lieuten- 
ant or a private, it would have been called insub- 
ordination ; but all we'll say about it now is that 
Sears is sick, and consequently irritable." 

Suddenly a wild, thrilling yell arose from the 
infantry in the ravine. It was taken up by those 
who were sheltered on the southern slope behind- 
the batteries; and Lieutenant Harris, peering^ 
through the battle smoke iu that direction, swung 
his hat above his head and shouted: "The big guns 
on Big Keunesaw have joined us. Now, boys, fire 
fast, and let the Yankees have a regular Confeder- 
ate concert." 

"Yes," added Major Storrs, "don't reduce a cart- 
ridge. Give them all the guns will stand." 

Their enthusiasm was well founded, for, like suc- 
cessive claps of thunder, the big siege guns on the 
crest of Big Kennesaw* had opened upon the Fed- 
erals; and already dense clouds of smoke were hang- 
ing around it on every side. 

Soma of the Confederates, who had taken position 
behind the crags and amid the thick forest and 
undergrowth on the east side of the ravine which 
separates the two summits of Kennesaw, said that 

*"You may make the necessary orders and be prepared for 
rapid aclion to-morrow. So dispose matters tliat the biji guns of 
Kennesaw will do you as little mischief as possible." — Dispatch 
from Gen. Sherman to Gen. MePherson, Jnne 2i, 1864. 

We have some very heavy p;nns on Kennesaw Mountain 
which annoy the enemy very much, and they keep out of our 
reach as miich as poss.ble.— Auffusta Constitutionalist, June 26, 
1864. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 73 

tbe scene was one where the terrible grandeur of 
war defied all powers of description. 

Beginning east of Brush Mountain, and extend- 
ing in an irregular line across the railroad westward 
to the neighborhood of the Lattimer house, and 
thence curving southwestward till they disappeared 
from view behind Little Kennesaw, dense clouds of 
smoke rose in quick succession from scores and 
scores of guns in the Federal batteries. From two 
or three casemated batteries toward the west these 
sudden puffs reminded one of the fire from gun- 
boats. There was but little air stirring, conse- 
quently an almost continuous chain of fog seemed 
hovering above the hills and valleys north an 1 west 
ot the mountain ; and this was all the time growing 
wider and thicker, and rising higher, as the thunder 
of forty or fifty discharges per minute shook the 
atmosphere around Kennesaw, and reverberated 
from the wild Etowah hills to the crowded streets 
of busy, bustling, anxious Atlanta, to whose ears 
these sullen sounds were like the roll of the drum 
of fate. 

Above, behind and in front of this roaring battle 
cloud, here and there they could see the sudden 
puffs of smoke which showed the explosion of the 
Confederate shells from the batteries on the crest" 
of Kennesaw. These, however, were so few, com- 
paratively, that they, as a soldier expressed it, 
"reminded one of a school boy throwing snowballs 
into a river full of ice." 

But around the summit of the mountain was con- 



74 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

centrated all the majestic terrors of the war storm.* 
The dense white smoke from the cannon enshrouded 
the parapets, the forest growth and the highest 
cliffs. Against the steep slopes, above the rising 
clouds, or in their midst, whirling them in cyclone- 
like circles by their explosion, the Federal shells — 
fuse shells, percussion shells and combination shellsf 
— were darting like thunderbolts. At times a hun- 
dred of these seemed bursting at the same instant, 
and the rolling balls of smoke and the tumultuous 
roar were absolutely terrific. The tempest had 
crowned Kennesaw. 

"Look!" exclaimed General Cleburne to Captains 

'•'The enemy directs most of his pieces against Kennesaw. 

The mountain is about two miles from Marietta, and can be 
shelled with ease. The sehrapnells pass over it and far into the 
rear, where it has become very dangerous. Several mules and 
horses have been killed among the commissaries.— Augusta Con- 
stitutionalist, June 22, 1864. 

tA distinguished gentleman,— a general in the Confederate 
army, whose command was on Kennesaw Mountain from June 
20th to July 3rd, 1864, stated to the author that the Federal artil- 
lerymen u=ed some shells, — "the like of which," said he, "I never 
heard of before, and have never seen since. They seemed to be 
what we might term combination shells; that is, ihey were per- 
cussion in front snd fuse behind, and so arranged that if they 
hit anything on the mountam the cap would explode the shell ; 
whereas, if they missed it, the shell would go flying throvigh the 
air over towards Marietta, and would explode in the air when the 
fire from the fuse reached the powder inside. 

"They were the most annoying things of the kind that I eyer 
saw, and created not only more comment, but more damage 
than any other missiles the Yankees fired at us. If one hit against 
the mountain side, we who were up there, were in danger of their 
flyng fragments, whereas, if they went over and exploded in the 
air the pieces would fall beh'nd the mountain right into the midst 
of our wagon train which was immediately behind it, and as 
we thought when we placed it there, shelted by the mountain. 

"These pieces falling would frequently hit a man or a mule, or 
would, anyhow, frighten the mules, and the consequence was the 
wagon train was in an uproar all the time. The teamsters found it 
much more lively than had been their expectation, or certainly 
their desire. 

"All in all they were villainous missiles, and we had no end of 
annoya'-ce from them as long as we held position on the moun- 
tain." 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 75 

L. H. Mangum and Irving A, Buck, of his staff, 
who were intently gazing at the mountain from the 
centre of the worlds occupied by that division over 
a mile away; "I have seen many a thrilling spec- 
tacle during the war; but never one more sublime 
than this. Heaven's most appalling thunderstorm 
hasn't more elements of grandeur in it than yonder 
war cloud which has burst and is roaring around 
Kennesaw." 

So awful was this rain of destruction that within 
a lew minutes the Confederate batteries were prac- 
tically silenced. General French ordered Major 
Storrs to have the guns which were not fully pro-» 
tected by parapets pulled back to the top of the 
southern slope, where the backbone of the mountain 
shielded them from the direct fire of the Federal 
artillery, and commanded the men to take shelter 
below them. 

They were safe here from a cross-fire, since 
Walker's line which ran southward from the western 
end of Little Kennesaw was so far advanced that 
the Federal works in front of it were too distant for 
the shells from their batteries to reach the summit 
of the mountain. Walker's men, on the contrary, 
were annoyed to some extent by the shells from the 
Federal batteries on the north, which passed over 
the mountain and, exploding a thousand feet in the 
air, dropped their Iragments in some instances into 
the very trenches. 

For fully ten minutes after the last Confederate 
gun had fired the bombardment from the enemy's 



76 KENNESAW'8 BOMBARDMENT. 

batteries continued with unabated fury. Trees 
were torn to pieces, and the falling boughs hurled 
clear over the mountain side; large stones were 
knocked frora the tops of the parapets; and against 
monstrous crags which jutted from the summit, 
sometimes nearly a dozen feet high, the deadly 
missiles flew, — the shells exploding with sounds like 
thunder, and scattering fragments on every side, 
the solid shot chipping out huge flakes by the con- 
cussion, and then, with a ring like the curse of dis- 
appointed spite, falling impotent to the ground, or 
bouncing hundreds of feet down the slopes on the 
south.* 

One poor fellow, a corporal in Ector's brigade, 
was killed by a cannon ball which struck a reck, 
glanced off over the southern side half-way down 
the mountain, broke off a large limb of a tree and 
fell upon him, mashing his skull. 

'•'It was the second or third day before we began to realize that 
a Yankee could shoot to the top of Little Kennesaw: then we 
changed our opinions and wondered if they really meant to shoot 
anywhere else.— Letter from a member of Hoskics' battery to the 
author. 




WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 77 



CIIAPTEK V. 

But from the towering crest of Great Kennesaw 
the Confederate batteries continued belching forth 
defiance and destruction upon the Federals far 
below. Their fire was not so rapid as had been that 
from Little Kennesaw ; on the contrary, was very- 
deliberate, and their aim unusually precise. These 
bad turned their attention more directly to the 
Federal batteries upon the two hills on opposite 
sides of Noonday creek, between which the West- 
ern & Atlantic Railroad runs, crossing the valley 
on a high, red embankment which was plainly seen 
from the top of the mountain. 

The Federals manning the farthest of the two 
turned their Parrott guns against Great Kennesaw ; 
but were fairly out-shot, and within less than twenty 
minutes their fire sensibly slackened, and soon 
theirs and the neighboring battery across the valley 
were silenced, — "completely knocked out," as the 
soldiers said. 

By two or three Confederate officers who watched 
the scene from the summit with field-glasses the 
Federal gunners could be plainly observed as they 
pluckily worked their pieces, sending up to the 



78 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

mountain-top well-aimed missiles against those 
whose shells were exploding so accurately among 
and around them ; but finally forsaking their death- 
scourged batteries and fleeing for safety into the 
forest behind them. 

A whirlwind of enthusiastic cheers now arose 
from the thousands of Confederates who were sur- 
veying the scene from Great Kenuesaw, and from 
the ravine on the west. This was renewed as their 
gunners next turned their attention to the Federal 
batteries on the hills to the east of and behind that 
where Tom McLellan's house now stands, less than 
half a mile directly in front of the eastern end of 
Little Kennesaw. 

But as if to meet the challenge Sherman's artil- 
lerymen all along the line slackened their fire upon 
Little Kennesaw, and began gradually opening 
upon the great peak. 

They first had to experiment for the range; and, 
their guns being elevated for the height of Little 
Kennesaw, the missiles struck the sides of its taller 
mate below the Confederate position. 

There was soon an improvement, however, in 
this, and ' now from one battery and then from 
another, first a single shell then two or three at a 
time, began exploding near the crest. 

Then from the Parrott battery near the Hardage 
house a shell, following a burst of smoke, flew, 
screaming like a hawk, over the very summit, 
and, curving downward, struck and sank into the 
ground in the valley on the east, and exploded just 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 79 

in front of a train of cars on the Western & Atlan- 
tic Railroad, throwing mud and fragments all over 
the engine, and stampeding the fireman, who was 
"oiling up" on that side. 

This engine, the "General," was the same which 
had been stolen at Big Shanty, April 12, 1862, by 
a party of twenty-two Federal soldiers in disguise, 
and with which they attempted the daring feat of 
hastening up the Western & Atlantic Railroad for 
the purpose of burning the bridges at its upper end. 

The chase and overhauling near Ringgold, Ga., 
of the "General"* and her captors have become a 
part of the nation's history. 

On the morning of this day of stirring events the 
"General" had taken a train load of supplies up to 
the Confederate lines near the foot of the mountain, 
and was now standing near there ready to returo. 

The engineer seeing the fireman "taking to the 
woods," sprang upon the platform, and, grasping 
the throttle with one hand pulled the whistle with 
the other, and gave a shrill blast to, as he after- 
ward said, attract the conductor's attention. 

But there was no necessity for blowing the whistle 
to accomplish that purpose, — the conductor already 
knew all about the case. 

"Here, Bill," he yelled, "we'll take the fever 
and ague among the highlands if we stay here any 
longer; let's slack back to Marietta." 

"Yes, I don't want my engine busted to pieces 
by Yankee bombshells," answered the engineer. 

•■■■The "General" is still on the Western & Atlantic Railroad, 
and is used for extra service. 
6 



80 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

"No," put in a countryman who was standing 
near, "nor I don't want my skin busted to pieces 
neither." 

"Hold on, gentlemen," exclaimed a captain, who 
was having several wounded soldiers put aboard 
the train, "you can't go till these men are in the 
cars. They have got to be taken down to the 
hospital at Atlanta." 

"Well, hurry up. Cap," said the engineer, "I'll 
stay here as long as you say ; but I don't want to 
stretch it any." 

"Oh, don't be afraid of a stray shell,' answered 
the captain, "there may not be another one here in 
two hours." 

"No, and when they do come," exclaimed one o^ 
the wounded men, "they ain't half so dangerous as 
a minie ball."* 

Just then another shell came darting over the 
mountain, and exploded in the air about three hun- 
dred yards from the train. 

"Make haste, Cap," yelled the engineer, "them 
Yankees is searching for us, and I want to find 
another hiding place." 

••'I will describe to you a new iriinie ball which the Yankees 
are using against us, and which I had exhibited to me on yester- 
day evening. It is made ot two separate bores, one of which is a 
hollow shell, and the other a kind of cap from which issues a 
short leaden screw. On this screw is placed a loose fitting piece 
of tin wider than the ball itself, and very sharp. This is then 
fitted in the hollow shell. The object of this appears to be, that 
where an artery may yield to a hall it will almost to a certainty be 
cut by this piece of tin. But if the ball should enter a man without 
taking off the cap, the chances are that when it is being extracted,, 
the tin will remain in the wound, and by constantly irritating the 
wound, eventually poison the tiesh, and render the sufferer incura- 
ble. Such is the last devilish invention of the Yankees. — Corres- 
pondence of the Atlanta Daily Intelligencer, June 15, 1864. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 81 

"Oh, never mind, Bill," laughed the conductor, 
"they have turned in the wrong direction; let us 
get these poor fellows aboard, and there'll be time 
enough to get away." 

This task was soon accomplished, however, and 
then at a signal from the conductor the engineer 
blew his whistle, and the "General" backed slowly 
southward toward Marietta, and in a few minutes 
was out of danger. 

Just before she started, however, an answering 
whistle, as of defiance, was heard from a Federal 
locomotive on the same railroad, north of Kenne- 
saw Mountain.* 

General Reynolds who was near the summit of 
Great Kennesaw, now directed the Confederate 
cannoniers to turn their attention especially to the 
battery west of the first one which had opened, and 
also to see if they could not get the range of the 
Parrott battery near the Hardage house, which was 
doing the most damage of all. 

Major W. C. Preston, Chief of Artillery for 
Walthall's division, was requested by him, during 
the temporary absence of the division commander 
from that portion of the line, to disregard the fire 
of the other batteries, and silence those two if possi- 
ble. 

Now, again the tempest of war began "blowing 

-■■"The Yankees are strongly entrenched in our front, while 
their trains on the Western & Atlantic railroad run as near to us 
as two miles. During the day the shrill whistle of the engines is 
plainly heard over the lines, and generally elicits a hearty yell 
from our boys. I must confess that Sherman is a good railroad 
superintendent, for the prompt manner in which he has repaired 
the bridges over the Oostanaula and Etowah rivers prove him so." 
— Correspondence of the Atlanta Daily Intelligencer, June 15, 1864. 



82 KENNESAWS BOMBARDMENT. 

great guns," and against Great Kennesaw the fiery 
messengers commenced flying from a dozen bat- 
teries. 

The Confederate works, however, being slightly 
east of and below the immediate summit, were in a 
measure sheltered from the enfilading fire which 
the Federals attempted to bring from the guns on 
the extreme west of their line. Those shells either 
struck the western side of the crest and did no- 
damage, or passed above the knob and flew over 
the heads of the Confederate gunners, and, darting 
into the valley, exploded, waking the echoes, but 
ending in noise. 

It was a magnificent spectacle, however, as the 
shells from the mountain top, and those toward it, 
flew in rainbow arches, their course being frequently 
followed through the thick atmosphere by the smoke 
from their fuses, and ending in stunning explosions 
which filled the air with smoke and scattered the 
boughs from the trees, or hurled the earth and rocks 
in showers on every side. 

With the diversion of the Federal fire from Little 
Kennesaw came the resolution of General French's 
artillerymen to reciprocate the assistance from their 
brothers on the other summit, and which had now 
brought upon Walthall's heroes the concentrated 
wrath of the entire Federal artillery array. 

Captain Ward and Sergeant Henry Hoskins, 
therefore, under Major Storrs' immediate direction, 
had four guns run forward, and, at a given signal, 
fired a volley of shells at the mischievous battery 




o 



O 

a 

tel 
o 

H 

a 
a 




84 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

behind the Hardage house. The puffs of smoke 
above the field below showed that they had practi- 
cally gotten the rauge of it. 

"Now, gentlemen," said General French, who 
had noticed that the Federal batteries were all 
turned against Great Kennesaw, "hurry up, and 
pour in a few dozen shells before they can face our 
way again." 

The men uttering a thrilling yell, pushed all the 
guns forward, tramping through the beds of prickly 
pear with their almost bare feet, regardless of the 
cruel thorns, and with wonderful alacrity opened 
upon the Federal position below. 

For three or four minutes not a missile came ia 
response; but then the hissing scream of a shell 
was heard above them, and the next instant the 
deafening explosion followed, and one of the soldiers 
on the farther slope of the ridge fell, with his leg 
badly bruised. 

"Keep it up, boys," shouted Major Storrs, "draw 
some of that fire which they've got against Great 
Kennesaw. The boys helped us, so we must help 
them out!" 

"Yes, we'll do it," yelled the men, "they've got 
to divide witb us. Clear out of the way of the 
Yallerhammers, Yanks." 

"Yallerhammers" was the nickname given Cap- 
tain Ward's brass Napoleon guns by the soldiers in 
this division. 

And now again the uproar from the guns on the 
crest of Little Kennesaw was renewed, and with 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 85 

marked effect, for within a few minutes one of the 
Federal batteries was silenced by their fire. 

Captain Hoskins' gunners on the right of the line 
turned their attention to a column of Federal in- 
fantry and a wagon train with a large drove of 
cattle which was passing down the road behind 
their batteries. Sergeant George Duke, with Pres 
ton Keys, Ben King, Zach Hoskins, J. F. Smith, 
and Wess Graham in charge of "Gun No. 1," and 
Sergeant Henry Hoskins, with Gus Furr, Has 
Furr, Bob Cornega and the "three Jims" (Rutland, 
'Allen and Smith), with "Gun No. 2," under Major 
Storrs' personal supervision, did themselves proud. 

Elevating the guns to an angle of forty-five de- 
grees, they sent their shells beyond the position 
occupied by the artillery , and began dropping them 
into the midst of the moving column. 

Great excitement was instantly apparent among 
the cattle and in the wagon train ; and one or two 
officers, with field-glasses, saw the teams going at 
nearly every angle across the open field by the road. 

The infantry also began double-quicking, and 
breaking up into detachments which got out of 
range as rapidly as possible, while the cattle, left 
to themselves, werq stampeded by the bursting bombs, 
and scattered in a hundred directions. 

While this was going on Guibor's battery was 
being worked as usual for all it was worth. Several 
notably fine shots were made by Sergeants Law- 
rence, Murphy and Robinson and by Pat Quinn. 
One of the shells sent by Pat exploded right under 



86 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

one of the enemy's guns, and when the smoke 
cleared away, the gun was seen lying on its side out 
of its previous location. 

But the triumph of the Confederates was only 
temporary, for the explosion of shells and the crash- 
ing of solid shot among the crags about their ears, 
soon told them that the boys on Great Kennesaw 
had been forced "to divide with them." In fact, 
the Federals leaving only about three batteries 
to play upon Great Kennesaw, had turned again 
almost their entire fury against the western summit. 

So terrific did this become that a second time the 
Confederates withdrew their guns to the south side 
of the crest. 

"It's hard for nine guns to whip a hundred and 
twenty-five or fifty!" exclaimed Major Storrs, as 
the men once more retired for shelter behind the 
jutting crags. It was well that they "lay low" and 
hugged the southern cliffs, for the bombardment 
had become absolutely fearful. The mountain was 
crowned with the fiery tempest, and tumult and 
destruction reigned supreme. 

In the midst of this scene of terror occurred an 
incident so startling, so thrilling, that it almost 
curdled the blood of every one who beheld it. 

Little Jack Harper, the eight-year-old "pet of 
the camp," who had been sheltered with, his sister 
behind a crag, through a crevice in the rock saw 
the flagstafl on the parapet struck by a shell and 
shattered to splinters. The starry cross of silk, 
with the upper fragment of the staff, was whirled 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 87 

nearly twenty feet backward, and fell to the 
ground. 

Like a flash Jack darted from his cover, and, 
grasping the banner, exclaimed, as indignant tears 
burst from his eyes, "Oh, you bad old Yankees, 
you've knocked down our flag; but I'll put it back 
again ! " 

With this childish shout he rushed forward amid 
the thunder and smoke of the explosion of a score 
of shells, and, climbing up the rocky sides of the 
parapet, stood upon its very top, and then, facing 
the "bad old Yankees" on the north, with both 
hands waved the banner of Dixie back and forward 
in delirious triumph. 

A freezing shriek of horror rang out amid the 
tumult; and the score of soldiers and officers who 
had just sprung forward to jerk the child from his 
perch, stood transfixed with dismay, as Jack's 
sister. Miss Mary Harper, who had also been shel- 
tered behind the same crag with the boy, rushed 
forward into the midst of the smoke and danger 
toward him. 

At that instant, however, a shell from a Federal 
battery exploded in the midst of the boughs of a 
tree in front of her, with a terrific report, amid a^ 
cloud of smoke which completely hid Jack, and 
scattered the debris in every direction. A whole 
section of the tree was hurled to the ground, falling 
against the parapet behind the boy, and between 
him and his now half-crazed sister, and obstructing 
her course toward him. 



88 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

With her hands clasped convulsively above her 
head, she screamed, "Merciful God, protect my 
darling baby brother!" 

But now like a whirlwind there was a general 
rush toward the two. John Minon seized the 
frantic girl in his arms, and bore her, fainting, back 
behind the bowlders. Captain Ward leaned upon 
the parapet and caught Jack, who was jumping 
around, and yelling in boyish glee, as he swung the 
colors backward and forward: "Oh, yes, you bad 
old Yankees, you thought our flag was down ; but 
HERE IT IS, waving right before you. Yes, here. 
IT IS; don't you see it? " 

As he was dragged backward, he "struggled like 
a young wild cat," as one of the soldiers expressed 
it, and cried in thrilling tones of grief, "Oh! don't^ 
oh! let me alone; they'll think we've surrendered, 
and we haven't! don't you see our flag's down on 
the ground now? Let me 'loose, so I can put it up 
again ! " 

"Never mind. Jack," shouted Captain Ward, 
"I'll put the flag up. We haven't surrendered." 

"And we don't intend to, do we. Captain?" ex- 
claimed Jack, with his eyes flashing like diamonds, 
as he threw his arms around the neck of the brave 
commander, on discovering who he was; "but where 
are you going to put the flag?" 

"I'll put it just where you had it. Jack," answered 
Captain Ward, as he set the boy in his former 
retreat. "Now do you stay here, and the flag will 
soon be waving all right." 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 89 

"Hurrah for the South and our flag!" shouted 
Jack, as the captain with the colors now hastily 
left him. 

"Yes, hurrah for the South and for our flag, 
Jack ! " exclaimed Captain Ward, "and, Jack, stay- 
just where you are. Those are my orders." 

"All right, I'll obey," answered the boy, "I'll 
obey." 

"My God ! Minon," exclaimed Captain Ward, as 
he turned and saw the latter with one hand, bearing 
Miss Mary Harper's unconscious form toward shel- 
ter, "what is this? is she hurt?" 

"No, sir, I think she's only fainted; but a piece 
of shell has just broken my right arm," said the 
young soldier, glancing at that member which was 
hanging Joosely by his side. 

"God grant she be not hurt! but let me help 
you," answered the captain, as he clasped the 
young lady tenderly in his arms, and hurried back 
with her, "come on, Minon." 

They darted behind the huge rock, just as a solid 
shot went crashing through a tree, hurling a large 
branch forward, whose foliage knocked the captain's 
hat off, and scratched his neck as it passed. 

Paying no attention to this, however, he laid the 
young lady upon a blanket before Jack, who burst 
into a flood of tears, and screamed, "Oh, have 
those bad old Yankees killed my sister? oh, Cap- 
taiit, have they killed her?" 

"No, Jack," answered the captain, "I hope she 
is not hurt. I think she has only fainted. Minon, 



90 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

please hand me your canteen, if you have any 
water in it." 

"I haven't any, Captain, but 1 will run and get 
some," said the latter. 

"No, let me go," shouted Jack, "I'll bring some 
from the bucket near the cannon." 

"Hold!" exclaimed Captain Ward, grasping the 
boy by the shoulder, "I ordered you to stay behind 
here; and you promised to obey, — I don't, allow 
any of my soldiers to disobey my orders." 

"All right, Captain, I beg your pardon, and will 
obey," answered Jack, "but I wanted so much to 
help sister." 

"That wish does you honor, my dear boy," said 
the commander, patting him on the head; "but 
here we have the water now, Mr. Minon has 
brought it. Now bring her once more to con- 
sciousness while I redeem my promise, andput back 
the flag where you had it. Matthews is down to 
the left helping to work gun number four," he 
added, speaking to himself. 

"I'm ahead of ye. Captain, this time!" shouted 
Partridge, who had seized the colors while the gal- 
lant artillery leader was doing the doubly gallant 
act toward Miss Harper, "I helped to fetch on this 
row, and now I'm going to help see it through 
creditably." 

With this remark he plunged forward through 
the smoke, and, waved the banner to and fro, and 
then, leaning forward, placed it against the stump 
of a sapling, and, leisurely pulling a strong cord 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 



91 



from his pocket, tied the remnant of the staff to 
the top. Then swinging his hat aloft, he looked 
toward the enemy's batteries, and yelled defiantly, 
"Thar, dern ye, knock it down ag'in if ye can!" 
This done, he leaped to the ground, behind the 













S?=^P>1^ 



PARTKIDGE. 

works, and exclaiming, "It tires me down to play 
the hero long at a time! " darted like a stag to the 
shelter of the rocks on the south. 

"Now let everybody keep behind shelter and 
behave himself," exclaimed Major Storrs, who had 
beheld the latter part of this episode, "Let there 
be no more exposure to danger till I give the 
order." 

He had scarcely made this remark before he 
turned around and noticed, coming up the southern 



92 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

slope, General Loring apd one of his orderlies. 
The major at once stepped downward and met him 
with the remark: 

"If you have been getting cold come up here 
and we will let you see what it is to have a warm 
time." 

"Thank you, Major," said General Loring, 
"I think this is hot enough for all the requirements 
of a reasonable man. But what seems to be the 
idea of the Yankees in this tremendous uproar from 
their batteries ? " 

"Oh, well," said the major, "you can't always 
judge what a lot of fellows are intending when they 
are kicking up a fuss nearly a mile away from you." 

"But how many guns have they playing upon 
you to-day ? " asked General Loring. 

"Oh, I think they have the full quota of one 
hundred and twenty-five or fifty," answered the 
major. "But if you would like to see for yourself 
how it looks in the forests and on the hill-tops 
below us, I will walk down with you to our big 
rock, and we will mount that and see with our own 
eyes." 

"All right," said the general, "let us venture 
over there for a few minutes." 

So saying the two officers and the orderl}- 
walked westward to Observation Rock. Major 
Storrs climbed upon it, and then reached his hand 
down and said, "General, let me give you a lift." 

"Thank you," said General Loring, "I can't 
climb so well with one arm as you can with two. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 93 

Ah! by the way, isn't this the very rock upon 
which you stood and counted the Yankee guns two 
or three days ago?"* 

''Yes, sir," answered the major, "that was the 
time when poor McBride was killed." 

The three stood upon the rock, and Major Storrs 
first took his field-glass and gave it a sweep around 
the smoke-obscured country down in front. Hand- 
ing it then to the general, he remarked: 

"You needn't take the trouble to count them, for 
I am sure all the dogs of war are barking at us. 
But look yonder to the north. General. See that 
train on the railroad, which has just come down 
from Big Shanty. I can plainly see it with the 
naked eye, and can hear its rumbling between can- 
non shots. See that little jet of smoke, and hear 
that whistle blowing 'down brakes.' They had 
better put on the brakes before they get under fire 
from our batteries. The train is scarcely two miles 
from us, and some of the big guns on the other 
peak might possibly reach it." 

"Yes," replied General Loring, "it has come to 
a dead stop ; and, see the soldiers pouring out of it ! 
A sort of blue fringe is all around it. Now they 
are forming into line. I suppose they are going 

* "After we had been on the mountain several days, and the 
«neniy continuing to accumulate artillery in our front, Gen. Johns- 
ton directed Gen. French to have their guns counted. 

''Gen. Ffi^Qch directed me to go upon the mountain, open fire 
so as to develop the enemy's full force of artillery, and count his 
guns. This I did, taking position on an ele\ated point, a large 
rock, I believe, to the left of my batteries, so as to be out of the 
smoke of my guns, and with a pair of field-glasses, I counted the 
enemy's pieces over several times until 1 was perfectly satisfied 
that one hundred and forty were playing upon us at that time." — 
Major Geo. S. Storrs in letter to the author. 



94 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

down to take position in front of Featherston. 
Well, let them come, we are ready for them." 

"Yes," answered Major Storrs, "let them come 
along as soon as they will." 

The general silently scanned the scene below 
with the glass for about five or six minutes. 
During this time the shells were screaming and 
bursting over and on all sides of them. Some of 
the soldiers had raised their heads above the rocks, 
and looked with considerable interest at the daring 
of the three, and Lieutenant Billy Richardson of 
Ward's battery, remarked to those beside him: 

"Whenever you're hunting for brave men and 
come to Major Storrs and General Loring, you can 
stop, for there's no need of going any further." 

After standing upon the rock some three or tour 
minutes, General Loring laughed, and said to 
Major Storrs : 

"Well, I expect, for a corps commander, 1 have 
stood up here as a mark for their shells long 
enough, and that there is no strict necessity for 
General Polk's successor to court his fate." 

"Yes," said Major Storrs, "and I don't see any 
real necessity for a division chief of artillery to 
remain here, just at this particular juncture, any 
longer than is proper to demonstrate to his higher 
officer that his batteries are under a pretty heavy 
fire from guns superior in number and calibre." 

"Oh! I always know where this chief of artillery 
is to be found whenever there is any tough fightings 
going on; but I don't think a man is always safe 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 



95 



who stays by his side too long after he has found 
him," answered the General. 

With a mutual smile the three then climbed down 
to the ground, and hastily made their way over to 
the southern side of the mountain. 




96 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Major Storrs, Generals Loring and French then 
walked behind the crest of the ridge to the slope 
leading into the ravine on the southeast. They 
here met General Ector, who, with a couple of 
members of his staff, was coming to consult General 
French ; and all six now, going forward amid the 
forest growth, could observe the general direction 
of the Federal fire. 

This was once more seeking the crest of Great 
KennesaAV, and battery after battery was turning a- 
portion of its guns from the lower summit toward it. 

Major Preston's object, however, had already 
been, in a measure accomplished, as the steady and 
deliberate fire which he had directed against the 
battery of Parrott guns near the Hardage house, 
had proven so disastrous that it had apparently 
driven the men trom the guns, except one piece to 
the left, which still at intervals, replied, and with 
some effect. 

But as the four officers, and a few others who 
accompanied them, surveyed the great crest, the 
dense white clouds which were rising from it for 
hundreds of yards into the air, and the sudden 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 97 

puffs of smoke from shells which flew screaming 
over their heads and burst thick and fast amid the^ 
forest on its slope, accompanied by the sharp report 
of the explosion, and the ringing, crashing sound 
of the scattering fragments against the rocks or 
through the trees, told them that the war-tempest 
was once more drifting against the great mountain. 

The fury of this storm suddenly rose in its inten- 
sity to the raging and appalling roar of the whirl- 
wind, as the hitherto silent casemated battery on 
the east side of the railroad and another, not pre- 
viously known to have been built, became envel- 
oped in white smoke from the simultaneous dis- 
charge of all of their pieces, and their deadly shells, 
aimed with remarkable precision, exploded almost 
in the very midst of the upper tier of Preston's 
guns. Again and yet again those fiery monsters, 
securely sheltered under the ground, belched forth 
death and ruin around the mountain top. Hidden 
themselves and safe from harm, they seemed to find 
every weak point in the Confederate works, and 
the very lightning appeared as flashing forth from 
the rocks on the parapets as their terrific shells 
came dashing against them and shattering them to 
atoms. 

It was certainly a grand scene, and from their 
shelter above the ravine the officers could without 
danger to themselves take in all its terrific majesty. 

They remained for some ten minutes beholding 
the rapid increase of the shower of shells and other 
missiles, which now fringed the entire peak with 



98 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

patches of cloud and flying boughs which were 
torn from the trees, when suddenly from near the 
summit a dense column of smoke and fire shot up 
hundreds of feet above it, and then ensued a stun- 
ning report which nearly deafened every one who 
heard. 

The fire of the Confederate batteries almost 
instantly ceased, and with the naked eye they 
could observe great commotion among the men on 
the side of the mountain; as a whole brigade, 
apparently, rushed forward to the scene of disaster 
and ruin, while the shouts from their midst told 
that the event was one of unusual moment. 

"Hurry over at once, and see what has hap- 
pened," said General French to an orderly, 
"I think a shell has dropped into Major Preston's 
ammunition and exploded it. Go down behind the 
ridge to your right, so as to be sheltered from the 
Yankee fire; and return as soon as possible." 

Tipping his hat, the young subaltern hurried 
away, and was soon lost to view amid the under- 
growth. They saw him again in a few minutes, 
climbing the heights on the southern side of the 
great peak, and shortly thereafter he disappeared 
behind the knob. 

About this time General Loring remarked to 
General French, "I don't think I'll wait for a 
report to be sent here as to the occurrence over 
.yonder, but will go myself. I presume that it is 
only an ammunition chest or something of that 
kind which has been exploded by a Yankee shell." 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 99 

"I have no doubt," said General French, "that 
you are correct." 

"Yes, beyond all question," said Major Storrs, 
"and I can hardly believe that anything serious is 
the matter on the other peak." 

"Well, it will take but a few minutes to find 
out," said General Loring, "so, good morning, 
gentlemen, I will see you at a later time." 

So saymg, he walked down the southern side of 
the ridge at a rapid pace. 

Just at this period, however, occurred an incident 
which was so thoroughly ludicrous in some of its 
features that the three officers in the midst of their 
anxiety, because of the catastrophe on the other 
peak, could not restrain their risibilities. Two sol- 
diers, who had been sent into the valley on the 
south for water for their comrades, had just reached 
the top of the slope on their way back. About a 
hundred canteens were swung to a pole which they 
were carrying on their shoulders. A shell passed 
between the two, struck the pole and whirled it 
from them back down toward Marietta, and, ex- 
ploding, scattered the canteens, as one of them said, 
"all over north Georgia." The clatter of the tin, 
the swish of the spilling water, as they were blown 
to pieces, and the crash of the bursting shell were 
remembered for many a day. Strange to say 
neither of the water carriers was hurt. 

In the meantime, after only four or five minutes' 
cessation, the batteries on Great Kennesaw opened 
again, first with one gun, then with four others. 



100 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

The Federal bombardment, however, had known 
no rest; on the contrary, during the silent interval 
among the Confederates, the enemy's shells had 
poured with unceasing fury arouna them. 

But the knob of the peak, as before shown, had 
prevented this from proving as dreadful a scourge 
as had been the case on Little Kennesaw, inasmuch 
as the Federal batteries in general were located 
more to the west of it, and their shells, therefore, 
either struck that face of the peak, doing no damage, 
or generally passed far beyond it before exploding. 

Major Preston, taking advantage of the location, 
had brought forward two guns, and, placing them 
on the gradual incline below the crest, to the left 
of where the casemated battery's shells were con- 
stantly exploding, had, by elevating them, opened 
fire over the summit upon the Federal position 
westward. 

They discharged several shells, while a couple of 
the men with field-glasses on the northern side of 
the mountain watched and reported where they fell. 
At length they secured the range of a battery which 
faced Little Kennesaw, and Major Preston then 
ordered these two pieces to keep up their play upon 
that location. 

Thus the tumultuous combat was continuing 
when the orderly returned, and reported that 
Major Preston had stated to him that the cause of 
the catastrophe, about which General French had 
made inquiry, was the falling of a Federal shell 
into the midst of an ammunition chest which was 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 101 

behind the guns on the crest of the mountain. 
This and another were side by side, each having 
thirty-two rounds of ammunition. They had both 
exploded with, a terrific concussion,* blowing trees 
to pieces, hurling huge bowlders like pebbles over 
the cliflfs, knocking men flat to the ground for 
fifty yards around, and, like a volcano, shooting a 
column of fire, smoke and debris hundreds of feet 
into the air. 

By one of those strange mercies of Providence, 
however, but few men were in the immediate vici- 
nity of the chests; consequently only two were 
known to be killed and tour wounded. One of the 
former was blown over the southern side of the 
mountain and his body, with head and one arm off, 
was found lodged amid the branches of a tree 
nearly a hundred yards below. 

Just after this report was received, General 
French observed an officer coming up the ravine 
from the south, whom he recognized as Colonel 
R. J. Manning, a member of General Johnston's 
staflf. 

"Good morning. Colonel," he exclaimed, saluting 
him at the same time, "come this way, please. 
Are you from headquarters?" 

"Yes, General," answered Colonel Manning, 
"General Johnston has sent me to ascertain the 
cause of this extraordinary bombardment, and to 

'■■This explosion, a Confederate officer, who was present and 
an eye-witness, states to the author to have been one of the grand- 
est and most fearful sights of its kind which he beheld during lour 
years of war. 



102 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

know if you need any,j,assistance from other parts 
of the line. Are the Yankees covering any move- 
ment of infantry by this artillery fire?" 

"No, sir," replied General French, "I think they 
are merely in for an artillery duel to-day, and are 
attempting to silence our batteries on the mountain 
top. You can say to General Johnston that we 
have infantry force strong enough to more than 
check any assault which they might dare; but 
there is, I think, no danger of an assault." 

"Well, at any rate," observed Colonel Manning, 
"they are playing their guns for all they are worth. 
I have had a very dangerous journey coming from 
headquarters up here. The shells are flying over 
the mountain, exploding sometimes a thousand feet 
in the air and scattering their fragments all around, 
or are lighting in the forest below and tearing 
whole trees to pieces. It is more dangerous down 
yonder for half a mile than it is on the slope near 
the summit. I'll go with you awhile and see how 
it looks up here, so that I can report to General 
Johnston as an eye-witness as well as the bearer of 
your message. This is a spectacle worth climbing 
a mountain to behold." 

"Yes," said Major Storrs, "the bombardment of 
a mountain top is a rare scene in military affairs." 

"But what is the status of affairs at other parts 
of the line. Colonel?" asked General French. 

"Nothing serious," answered the latter. "The 
Yankees are throwing a good many shells over our 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 103 

line from their position east of the railroad,* and 
they have just tried our position on Hardee's front 
without success." 

"Yes," said General French, "I saw that attack 
from up here." 

General French and his party now walked back 
to their post on Little Kennesaw, and Major Storrs 
was directed to run one or two guns forward at a 
time at different places on the ridge, and open 
upon the Federals, the object being to prevent the 
concentration of their fire upon the Confederate 
position on Great Keunesaw. 

They soo ' met Captain Ward and Lieutenant 
Harris, and Major Storrs gave them the programme, 
aud sent similar orders to Hoskins' section of two 
guns on the mountain top and to uis and Bellamy's 
batteries, on the hill west of Little Kennesaw, com- 
manding the Burnt Hickory road. 

As they separated, the major noticed Captain 
Ward shake his head in a jocular manner, and say 
to the sharpshooter, Partridge, who was standing 
by his side, ^'Yoic had better get down in front of 
the mountain; we are going to 'wake up the bat- 
teries,' and those Yankees want to shoot especially 

-'The Yankees, by marching and counter-marching, have suc- 
ceeded in maneuvering into possession of a portion of the ridge 
which stretches off to the right from the railroad, and overlooking 
Marietta. By these open movements by day and counter moves 
by night they have advanced their lines considerably, though not, 
perhaps, very advantageously, on our wings ; but on our centre 
they have gafned only a few hundred yards of advance. Whetlier 
it will be an advantage time will develop. The enemy has learned 
to his great cost that our retention of the mountain is most 
destructive and formidable to him. He is chary of attack on ihe 
centre. Our terrible batteries and formidalile engines of destruc- 
tion are against their advance, and hitherto the impregnable point 
has only been bombarded.— Atlanta Intelligencer, June 22, 1S64. 



104 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

at you. They'd rather hit you than to dismount 
all the cannon on Kennesaw." 

"Yes, Gosh dern 'em ! " was the response, "you 
make out like you're a jokin'; but onbeknownst 
you're tellin' the solidest kind of tacts and truth. 
I tell ye what, when they first begun drappin' the'r 
shells around, amongst the rocks, I laughed; yes, 
I fairly haw-hawed. But after 'while I jest sorter 
smiled, and then, when they commenced a rainin' 
down bustin' bombshells, like fire and brimstone on 
Sodom and Gomorry; and when the very rocks 
seemed to be spittin' out flames, and when the 
smoke from the whole mountain and the surround- 
in' kentry went up like the smoke of a furnace, 
I knowed the best place for me was on this side of 
Kennesaw. I don't know how I got through the 
gap, but I'm here to show I did." 

"Yes, but you are not as badly frightened as 
you pretend," laughed the captain; and added, 
"true merit is always modest." 

"Oh, I ain't skeered now; but I acknowledge 
the corn I was then," replied Partridge, with a 
grin. "But, hello, boys, what the mischief's the 
matter?" he exclaimed, running forward amid a 
group of soldiers who had jumped up in a confused 
manner from behind a huge rock, one of them 
pointing his musket toward the ground and firing it. 

"Rattlesnake!" answered several in a bieath. 

"But I done for him, consarn his rusty side," 
said the one who had fired, pointing at the writh- 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 105 

ing reptile whose head was nearly cut ofi' by the 
well-directed bullet. 

"He came from under the rock right among us," 
said a lieutenant to Major Storrs, who had stepped 
forward to see what was the cause of the excitement. 
- "We're in a nice trap," interjected a soldief, 
"Yankees shooting at us in front, rattlesnakes 
biting at us from behind, and cactus sticking our 
feet from underneath." 

"Yes, and the devil playing his pranks on every 
side," said the lieutenant. 

"And still we'll whip the fight," exclaimed Major 
Storrs in a cheery tone. 

" "Yes, that is, we'll undertake to whip the 
rattlesnakes and the Yankees, and mash down the 
cactus, if the Lord will manage the devil," added 
Captain Ward, with a laugh. 

The party then dispersed and went to their 
several posts. 

AVithin a few minutes one of Captain Hoskins' 
pieces was discharged, and a shell was landed near 
the Federal works below. 

One of Ward's guns, aimed by Lieutenant Wil- 
liam ("Billy") Richardson, who was one of the 
crack marksmen of the artillery battalion, was next 
fired, and its shell was seen, through the glasses, to 
knock a small log cabin, just behind one of the 
batteries, to pieces, causing a stampede by several 
men who were in it. 

Guibor's battery followed suit, and the enemy 



106 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

was put on notice that the mountain was still held 
by "the un terrified." 

An irregular fire was now kept up from I^ittle 
Kennesaw by the Confederates, "stealing a shot 
now and then," as Major Storrs termed it, which 
drew away the attention of the Federal batteries 
to some extent from Great Kennesaw, and thus 
accomplished the result sought by General French. 
One of Hoskins' guns, aimed by Major Storrs him- 
self, blew up a caisson right in the very midst of 
the battery east of Tom McLellan's house. 

But, after another furious bombardment of the 
western crest from nearly all their guns, which was 
comparatively barren of results, except in making 
a magnificent display, the Federal fire gradually 
slackened until at about sunset it ceased entirely. 

The Confederates had drawn back their guns and 
did not fire a single round from Little Kennesaw 
during the last half hour, and from the higher peak 
only an occasional shell was thrown in return. 
They had too scant a supply of ammunition to use 
it in mere artillery duels. * 

Both officers and men watched the gradual cessa- 
tion of the fiery tempest, and noticed how battery 
after battery became silent on the hills below ; and 
then, with the danger over, crowded on top of the 
ridge again, standing in the open spaces, or mount- 
ing the huge bowlders, to survey the inspiring 
scgnes around and beneath them. 

The sun was just disappearing beneath the hori- 
zon. Yet not in the quiet majesty of a clear day 



WAKING UP THE BATTEKIES. 107 

was his golden disc kissing the hill-tops, but, as 
typical of the tumultuous events of the hours he 
had illumined, the dazzling orb was sinking into 
the embrace of a stormy sea of clouds whose con- 
quering waves, dashed high into the air, his glitter- 
ing rays were gilding with roses and fire. 

From Lost Mountain on the right a column of 
fleecy mists seemed towering far, far upward 
toward the zenith ; and from out its ruddy sides a 
thousand silvery banners hung their wavy pennons 
of light which radiated from pearls, opals, dia- 
monds, rubies and topazes garnishing their borders. 
Circling in a majestic arch from north to south fold 
after fold of golden fleece bounded the cerulean 
expanse; while scattered in indescribable disarray 
appeared castles, naountains, placid lakes, rain- 
bows and surging billows of roseate hue. A myriad 
clusters of light were playing around their sides 
and crowning their crests. 

Back of all these, in the sky above, thick inky- 
hued masses of clouds were drifting together, as if 
threatening another storm such as had pelted the 
mountain and its occupants so dismally the night 
before. 

But no rain was destined to come "between suns' 
now, although obscurity was drawing his misty 
robes around Kennesaw and its rival armies, and 
the clammy kiss of sable night was almost imprinted 
upon the eastern forests below them. 



108 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 



CHAPTER VIT. 

And now while, so far as regarded the tremen- 
dous engines of war: 

"Silence settled deep and still 

O'er the lone wood and mighty hill," 

the tender emotions of chivalrous manhood found 
their homes in the hearts of Captain Ward and 
those immediately around him. 

Leaving his guns, he had gone behind the shel- 
tering bowlder, where Miss Mary Harper had been 
left with little Jack and John Minon to restore her 
to consciousness from the fainting fit into which 
she had gone in the midst of the terrifically thrill- 
ing episode, in which Jack had figured as the hero. 

The sun had scarcely disappeared when he step- 
ped quietly around with the question, "Well, how 
are the queen of Kennesaw and the champion of 
the flag of Dixie?" 

"Oh! Captain Ward," shouted Jack jumping 
up, and running to his side, "we've whipped the 
Yankees, haven't we? We've still got the moun- 
tain and our cannon ; and our flag is still waving, 
isn't it? Haven't we whipped 'em. Captain?" 

"Yes, Jack," laughed the captain, taking the 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 109 

enthusiastic youngster up into his arms, "we've 
kept off the Yankees, and we've got all of our can- 
non and the mountain; and our flag is still waving 
just where you had it. Ah! Miss Harper," he 
added, turning to her and watching her as she was 
wrapping a new bandage around the arm of Minon, 
"was the poet referring to you when he wrote: 

'A ministering angel thou!' " 

"No, indeed! Captain," she quickly replied with 
a merry laugh; "that was written some fifty or 
s'xty years ago; and surely you don't mean to 
insinuate that you think I look that old." 

"Parish the thought! never, never, no, never 
would I be guilty of an insinuation so utterly 
devoid of foundation as that" he exclaimed, and 
then added : 

"But you know the language of prophecy some- 
times reads like it refers to the day in which it is 
given forth; and thus Sir Walter builded wiser 
than he knew when he wrote the words which fit 
her to whom I now speak. Minon, you are a 
lucky chap. But for the anxiety it would give my 
dear wife and little ones at home, I almost wish 
I had been wounded, so that I too could have had 
the attention of so fair a nurse, — one who seems to 
have been wafted from the clouds into our midst to 
cheer and to save." 

"You say you almost wish; now. Captain, . I go 
farther than that, and say that I am not sorry 
I was wounded; because the privilege of having 



110 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

such a nurse counterbalances the pain of the 
wound." 

"But| it does not counterbalance to our country 
the loss of the power of your arm in this day of her 
trial and need," said Miss Harper in a tone almost 
of reproach, "therefore you should be very sorry 
that you are disabled, while your brothers around 
you are still strong and ready to battle for her 
cause." 

"Nobly spoken. Miss Harper!" exclaimed Cap- 
tain Ward, clapping his hands, "I am glad to see 
somebody besides myself turned down in your neat 
manner; and then that is the correct doctrine for 
this time and occasion." 

"I surrender! " ejaculated Minon, "I am not only 
defeated, but discomfited. There's no answer to 
that except one." 

"And," said Miss .Harper, "that is"— 

"T© get well at the very earliest possible minute, 
and scainper back to my place at the front." 

"Well, no one will be more delighted to see you 
get well than I," was the gentle answer; "and I am 
willing to depend upon you to carry out the latter 
part of your promise, when your strength and 
health are restored." 

"Te-ump, te-ump, te-ump, te-tump!" hummed 
Captain Ward, in a tone of assumed indifference, 
and with a comical twinkle in his eye; and added, 

"Jack, it's getting rather close behind this rock; 
hadn't Ave two better walk forward into the open 
air? There's more room for us out there, I think." 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. Ill 

"No, no indeed, Captain"! exclaimed the young 
lady with a blush, "those were only such words 
as every woman should speak to every Southern 
gentleman." 

"Yes, Captain Ward," said Jack springing to his 
feet, "Let's go forward among the cannon, and see 
what the old Yankees are doing. Our men whip- 
ped 'em, didn't we?" 

"Oh! we whipped them badly, Jack," replied the 
captain. 

"Hold on. Jack!" exclaimed his sister with a 
start, "you shan't go forward into the jaws of 
danger again. Come, we must return to Marietta 
before any more trouble comes upon us. Mother 
will be almost crazy about us, and we must go at 
once." 

"Oh! no. Sis," answered f Jack impetuously, as 
tears gushed from his eyes, "there's no danger now, 
and I do want to go and see over the mountain at 
the Yankees. Captain Ward told me to come on ; 
and he'll take good care of me." 

"Yes, let us go for a minute. Miss Harper," said 
the captain, "there is no danger just now. Come 
with us, too, and survey the pomp of war, since 
you have already seen and heard its^terrors." 

"Well, I will go for a few minutes, and then 
Jack and I must be getting away from here. This 
is no place for women and children." 

They started forward toward the parapet. 

"Stop a minute," said Miss Mary, "do listen to 
that red-bird. I thought every one of his kind had 



112 KENNESAAV'S BOMBARDMENT. 

flown at least five miles away from the mountain ^ ') 
after the terrible tumult which had surrounded it 
to-day. But the little fellow has lit upon that tree, 
and is singing as fearlessly and merrily as though 
a, cannon had never been fired in Georgia." 

"Yes," said Captain Ward, "he is a regular 
Confederate. It takes something more than a 
bombardment from Yankee batteries to demoralize 
him." 

"Ah!" interjected a soldier standing right by 
them, "that's the right kind of talk; but I confess 
that for awhile I felt like the fellow did up about 
Chickamauga. He saw a dog skedaddling through 
the woods as fast as his legs could carry him when 
the battle was about at its worst. Stopping for an 
instant, he looked at him, and then said in an 
under tone, 'Run, dog, run, if I wasn't a man 
I'd run too.' " 

A hearty laugh ensued from the party, after 
which Miss Harper remarked, "But our little red- 
bird is made of more heroic stuff than the dog in 
jour story." 

The bright little winged songster, as if almost 
conscious of the fact that he was receiving such 
flattering attention, continued warbling forth some 
of his gayest and sweetest notes. Then, stopping 
for an instant, he arose from his perch, darted over 
toward the right, and, alighting upon the very muzzle, 
of one of the cannon of Guibor's battery, which was 
now temporarily deserted, resumed his inspiring 
little song. A hundred eyes beheld him, and there 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 113 

was apparently a general desire to applaud the 
little Confederate prototype ; but all refrained until 
after a couple of minutes' flow of his merriest notes, 
he arose and flew still further toward the right of 
the line. Then there was a general clapping of 
hands and an enthusiastic cheer with shouts of 
*'Hurrah for our game little Confederate!" and 
Partridge shook his head and emphatically ex- 
claimed, "I'll never shoot another red-bird!" 

As they walked up toward ^the northern side of 
the ridge, the sound of a banjo and the patter of 
feet were heard near by, and, passing a huge bowl- 
der, they suddenly came upon a group of soldiers 
around a negro who was picking a banjo and sing- 
ing, while a couple of other negroes were patting 
and dancing a jig. 

The soldiers, seeing the lady, immediately arose, 
throwing off their air of abandon and carelessness, 
and saluted her and her escort with respectful 
deference. The darkeys, however, being so busily 
engaged in amusing the party, did xiot notice what 
was the cause of the uprising, and continued their 
merriment. 

As Captain Ward and the others passed along, 
they caught one verse of the negro's song : 

"Eabbit take his pipe to smoke, 
'Coon eat turkey liash ; 
'Possum try to crack a joke, 
But wolf run off wid de cash.'' 

Jack was immensely amused at this part of the 



114 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

proceedings, and lingered to hear some more of it; 
but the others passed on their way. 

Within a minute or so, however, he came run- 
ning forward and exclaimed in a pleading tone: 
"O, Captain Ward, and Sis, please come back here 
and listen to the singing; it's mighty funny." 

Well, Jack," answered the captain good-humored- 
ly, "I reckon we will have to hear a song or two 
for your especial benefit, — a sort of mountain con- 
cert in the open air by uneducated artistes." 

They accordingly stepped back among the merry 
makers who again rose to greet them. 

Captain Ward then remarked, "Don't let us 
break up the fun, boys; we have come to enjoy it 
with you. And you have the most select audience 
you ever rehearsed before. Now, Woodson, give 
us one of your best, and do your best." 

"All right, Marse John, we'll do our level best; 
but what song does you want? How'll 'Susanna 
do for yer?" said Woodson. 

"That'll do finely," exclaimed the captain, "Now 
do you play and sing, and we'll all join in the 
chorus." 

"Yes, sir," said Jack, "we'll all join in the 
chorus." 

"All right. Jack," added Miss Harper with a 
laugh, "we'll all join in the chorus for your benefit." 

The whole party formed a circle around Wood- 
son, who began picking his banjo, and then sang: 

"Ise come from Alabama wid de banjo on my knee, 
Ise gwine to Louisiana my true love for to see ; 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 115 

It rain'd all night de day I left, de wedder it was dry, 
De sun so hot 1 froze lo deaf, Susanna, don't you cry." 
Then as Woodson threw back his head, walled 
his eyes, patted his feet and slung his banjo around 
in a serio-comic ecstacy, the entire line of officers, 
privates, negroes and Jack and his sister stormed 
out the chorus : 

"O Susanna! 
Don't you cry for me; 
I've come from Alabama 
With the banjo on my knee." 
After picking his banjo nimbly for a minute, 
Woodson wagged his head in what may best be 
termed a zig-zag manner, and sang the second verse : 
"I jump'd aboard de Telegraph an' travel'd down de river, 
De 'lectric fluid magnified and killed four hundred nigger, 
De bullgine bust, de boss run ofT, I really thought to die; 
I shot my eyes to hold my breff"; Susanna, don't you cry." 
Officers and men now joined "all hands 'round," 
and with the patter of feet woke the welkin with : 
"O Susanna! 
Don't you cry for me; 
I've come from Alabama 
With the banjo on my knee." 
Jack laughed till he almost choked ; and Wood- 
son, after a broad grin had shown his big white 
teeth, continued in a rather subdued tone: 
"I had a dream de odder night when everything was still, 
I thought I seen Susanna a comin' down de hill, 
De buckwheat cake war in her mouf, de tear war in her 

eye, 
Says I, 'Ise comin' from de Souf, Susanna, don't you cry." 
Just here every man put his hand to his mouth, 



116 KENNESAW'S BOMBAEDMENT. 

after Captain Ward Lad whispered to Miss Harper, 
and Jack found himself the only one singing the 

chorus. 

"O Susanna ! 
Don't you cry for me — " 

his childish voice rang out, shrill and clear; but, 
hearing no others, and seeing a solemn look upon 
the faces of all, and every one perfectly silent. 
Jack exclaimed: 

"Ob! ain't you going to sing the chorus? 
Excuse me." 

All were provokingly quiet for about twenty 
seconds, while Jack's face became as red as a beet; 
but then Captain Ward came to his relief by shout- 
ing: 

"O Susanna!" 

and the entire circle joined in, and shook the air 
with, 

"Don't you cry for me ; 
I've come from Alabama 
With the banjo on my knee." 

Woodson after an instant picked his banjo, and 
continued : 

"I'll soon be down in New Orleens, an' den I'll look all 
'round. 
An' if I find Susanna I'll fall upon de ground; 
But if I do not find her dis darkey'll shorely die. 
And when I'm dead and buried, Susanna, don't you cry." 

AVoodson then jumped up, swung his banjo above 
his head, and, as the other negroes patted vigor- 
ously, began dancing an old-fashioned jig, while all 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 117 

of his audience swung their hats above their heads 
and, marching around in a circle, sang: 

"O Susanna! 
Do^'t you cry for me-f 
I've come from Alabama 
With the banjo onjmy knee." 

The echoes seemed to li^iger among the crags, 
and Jack laughed himself almost hoarse. He then 
turned to Captain Ward and said: 

"O Captain, now get Sis to sing, 'O yes, I am a 
Southern girl.' I know these soldiers would like to 
hear it." 

"Oh! no, indeed, Jack," exclaimed his fcister, 
"you will be voted a first-class nuisance ii you don't 
hold your tongue." 

"Ah! but why not. Miss Harper? I like Jack's 
suggestion, and dare say that all these gentlemen 
would ieel honored and delighted if you would sing 
for us. Pardon me for saying that you have illus- 
trated the highest type of Southern womanhood 
to-day, and I am sure we would all be charmed to 
have you sing for us," 

"Yes, please sing for us ; we should so much like 
to hear you," came from at least twenty voices in 
the throng. 

"Well, this is more than I bargained for," said 
the young lady to Captain Ward, while her face 
was suffused with blushes, "But I am without an 
accompaniment. " 

"Ah, we will supply that," answered the captain. 
"Here, Mr. Carnes, please bring your cornet." 



118 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

"With great pleasure, sir," exclaimed the young 
musician, who was a member of the division band, 
and a superb master of his art. 

Stepping forward, he bowed politely to Mi s 
Harper, who smiled and said, "If 'twere done 
'twere well 'twere done quickly." 

Taking his cornet, he began playing the prelude 
to the air, "The bonnie blue flag," and then, as its 
clear, silvery echoes quivered around the mountain 
top with the sweetest melody, Miss Harper sang: 

"Oh! yes, I am a Southern girl, 

And glory in the name, 
And boast it with far greater pride 

Than glittering wealth or fame. 
We envy not the Northern girl. 

Her robes of beauties rare. 
Though diamonds grace her snowy neck. 

And pearls bedeck her hair. 

Chorus.— Hurrah ! hurrah! 

For the sunny South so dear: 
Three cheers for the homespun dress 
The Southern ladies wear. 

The homespun dress is plain, I know, 

My hat's palmetto, too; 
But then it shows what Southern girls 

For Southern rights will do. 
We've sent the bravest of our land 

To battle with the foe. 
And we will lend a helping hand; 

We love the South, you know. 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! etc. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 119 

Now, Northern goods are out of date; 

And since old Abe's blockade, 
We, Southern girls can be content 

With goods that's Southern made. 
We sent our sweethearts to the war. 

But, dear girls, never mind, 
Your soldier-love will ne'er forget 

The girl he left behind. 

Hurrah! hurrah! etc. 

The soldier is the lad for me — 

A brave heart I adore ; 
And when the sunny South is free, 

And fighting is no more, 
I'll choose me then a lover brave 

From out the gallant band, 
The soldier lad I love the best 

Shall have my heart and hand. 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! etc. 

The Southern land's a glorious land, 

And has a glorious cause; 
Then cheer, three cheers for Southern rights, 

And for the Southern boys. 
We scorn to wear a bit of silk, 

A bit of Northern lace : 
But make our homespun dresses up. 

And wear them with such grace. 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! etc. 

And now, young man, a word to you; 

If you would win the fair. 
Go to the field where honor calls. 

And win your lady there. 
Remember that our brightest smiles 

Are for the true and brave. 



120 KENNESAWS BOMBARDMENT. 

And that our tears are all for those 
Who fill a- soldier's grave. 

Chokus. — Hurrah ! hurrah ! 

For the sunnj South so dear; 
Hurrah for the homespun dress 
The Southern ladies wear." 

A tempest of applause succeeded, in the midst of 
which one of the soldiers shouted, "Three cheers 
for a Southern young lady who illustrates that song 
by herself wearing a homespun drees ! God bless 
her, and give one like her to every home in Dixie ! " 

The whole mountain top rang with the enthusi- 
astic cheers which followed; and Captain Ward 
then remarked : 

"Gentlemen, it is needless to say that we are 
under a thousand obligations to our fair friend 
who has made this mountain peak seem like the 
home of the muses ; or better far, like one of our 
sweet Southern homes; but as I wish her to enjoy 
the view over the surrounding country before dusk, 
we must bid you adieu." 

Miss Harper then gracefully bowed to the throng, 
exclaiming in an audible tone, "God bless our 
Southern soldiers ! " 

All hats were lifted, and every one politely 
saluted them as the captain and his beautiful 
charge passed on from their midst. 

The party then walked forward to the parapet, 
and looked upon the rolling hills, which bordered 
the base of the great mountain on the north. 

For a while they stood, viewing the dark forests 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 121 

below, with open areas of fields here and there. 
Peering out of the first or whitenilig the latter were 
the tents of the Federal army, in front of whicja, 
like little red threads, ran the entrenchments. 
Before even these they could in one spot and then 
another see little pufis of smoke and hear faint 
sounds of skirmish firing. 

Just at this time Lieutenant Sam Kennard, of 
Guibor's battery came up, and, after saluting the 
party, remarked: "I see you are again taking a 
view over the Yankee camps and the surroundings 
in general. I have a copy of this morning's Atlanta 
Intelligencer, in which is a most beautiful description 
of it, and which I will let you have. " 

"Thank you very much," said Miss Harper, and 
Captain Ward, taking the paper, in compliance 
with her evident desire read the article, as they sat 
down under a small cedar tree. 

"One of the most magnificent views to be seen on 
earth is the scene exhibited from the summit of the 
Kennesaw Mountain. From its base a valley on 
all sides spreads off in billowy-like surfaces, rolling 
higher and higher until it is lost on the south 
on the blue outline of the southeastern spur of 
the Alleghanies, on whose crests the white line of 
houses and occasional spires of Atlanta are plainly 
visible. Southward, beyond that regular line, a 
smooth, blue cone lifts up its head above all the 
ridges within view, and overlooks the eminences of 
all the country. It is Stone Mountain, that barren 
hill and wonderful curiosity that arises like a huge 
loaf, and, though over twenty miles south of the 
crests where Atlanta rests in her beauty, it seems 



122 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

as though it was a helmet sitting on the brow of 
this ffiaut ridge. 

VEastward, and but a few miles from the base 
of the Kennesaw, the lovely village of Marietta 
gleams out from amid the luxuriant foliage which 
embowers it like an emerald setting woven in a 
cluster of diamonds. In its desolation it remains 
beautiful. Its arbored shades look as inviting as 
when the exquisite forms of beauty and the attrac- 
tive eyes of lovely and loved women, and elegant 
people charmed the visitor to remain and luxuriate 
amid its endearments. The defacing touch and 
destroying presence of an army are evident on 
its face. Its citizens gone, its magnificent homes 
deserted, its regal residences desolate, its church 
bells quiet, its halls abandoned and its music 
silenced, it remains but a warlike citadel on the 
plain. The echoes of war, the fitful signal of the 
clanging, spurred dragoons, the challenge of the 
sentry, the snort of the war-horse, the shrieks of the 
steam-engines, the rumbling of trains of cars and 
long lines of wagons, and the shouts of teamsters 
and workmen, swell aloud on the air at intervals, 
and then the oppressive silence becomes more intol- 
erable than the noise was bef )re. The destructive 
finger of war is laid on the village, but it remains 
beautiful in its ruins. Northeastward from the 
slope of the mountain the billowy hills wave into 
the dim, misty outline of the crests whose thin blue 
brows stretch to the Catskills on the Hudson. The 
Blue Ridge, with all its strange contour and fantas- 
tic outlines, fades before us into a cloud, and into 
the impenetrable depths where even distance does 
not 'lend enchantment to the view,' by robing the 
'mountain in its azure hue.' 

"Brush Mountain casts up its shaggy head before 
us, and like the hump of a camel sits a ragged 
monster barrier, on whose sloping face an army 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 123 

defends the pathways that lead to the goal of our 
enemy's ambition. At its feet a smiling, peaceful 
valley shows its fair face, and, laughing in the sun- 
light, its green fields and treasured homes reflect 
back the scorched rays of the bright sun, shining 
like the glorious gems that the}"^ are to the husband- 
man. Far off northward their bosoms are bared to 
grow the wealth that fills our granaries and store- 
houses with their golden grain. The limit is 
bounded by the hills along the Etowah. Skirting 
the horizon, their broken backs are misty and dim. 
Sometimes a dull red or barren sandy spot on the 
iron hills gleams out on their sides or summits. 

"To the north and westward the fertile country 
presents a repetition of hills and valleys that are 
studded with the beautiful farms of planters, whose 
homes awhile since were busy hives of industry, 
and where peaceful sounds of pastoral life only 
broke on the ear. 

"The great red banks of the Western & Atlantic 
Railroad wind like the tortuous curvings of a huge 
snake along over the surface — here on an enormous 
bank, there through a deep cut. It winds back 
and forth, binding the mountains and valleys with 
links of iron, and transports the treasures of the 
caverns on the Tennessee on its surface for the 
necessities and luxuries of a people hundreds of 
miles to the southward. 

"Away over the tops of the peaked hills at 
Allatoona, the dim outlines of the ranges of hills 
along the Etowah and Oostanaula float in the mists 
of the quivering sunlight We almost seem to see, 
bounding the horizon, and shutting off the view, 
the exquisitely beautiful and gracefully curved out- 
lines of Lookout Mountain. 

"The sparkling, glassy curves of Noonday Creek 
glitter in the sun's rays. But to-day, instead of the 



124 KENNESA-VV'S BOMBARDMENT. 

fairies that once sported beneath the silver sheen of 
the moon's soft rays, armed men make night hideous 
with their brawls, their hoarse challenges, and the 
quick, sharp shot of their deadly rifles. 

"Off" to the left, nearly in the track of the set- 
ting sun, Pine Mountain shows its sombre sides. 
Almost dark with the perennial verdure of its foli- 
age, its cypress gloom frowns down black as a 
funeral pall. It mourns that a deed of blood and 
crime was done on its crown. There it stands, and 
forever will remain a monument for legends and 
history, to tell that a noble Christian, a gallant 
warrior, a great champion, and a loved man died 
in battle at the hands of our enemy. There Gen- 
eral Leonidas Polk, the great bishop, the great 
general, was killed. Even our enemies cannot 
rejoice over the horrid deed. Our country mourns 
his loss. History will weave about his crosier, his 
sword and his tomb, and entwine with the chaplet 
that adorns his memory, his many virtues and his 
glorious, gallant deeds. 

"South of the dark mountain a black and gloomy 
forest presents its interminable and intricate lab- 
yrinths of trees. They are overlooked by Lost 
Mountain, which stands grim and frowning like a 
huge grizzly monarch of the olden time. The very 
air of antiquity seems to hang over it, and though 
a wonderful curiosity, a monstrous freak of nature's 
fantastic humor,* yet it stands a forbidding sentinel 
and landmark to the hundred hills around. 

"South and west are the bloody depths about 
New Hope Church and Dallas. Eastward are the 
yet ghostlier places of sepulchre about Gilgal, and 
beyond the base of Little Kennesaw are seen the 

•I'lt is said that Lost Mountain was so called because it wan- 
dered away from all the other mountains and got lost. 

From its summit one can easily look into Marietta, eight miles 
distant, 



;. F WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 125 

,' mazes'of the dark and bloody grounds where battle 
has made fearful and horrid marks. 

"Over the whole valley surrounding the base of 
Kennesaw the arts and appliances of war have dis- 
placed the humbler work of the husbandman. 
Interminable lengths of earthworks and forts, 
parallels and approaches, defenses and advance 
lines, batteries and muskets and warrior foes 
cover the land. Thousands of white spots declare 
the tented field. The deep-mouthed bellowing of 
brazen cannon, the chopping sound of the picket 
shots, volleys of opposing musketry, shouts of 
infuriated men, the yells of advancing foes, the 
neighing of the war steeds, the bray of mules, 
the shrill blasts of trumpets, the roars of mimic 
thunder, answering the furious bursts of the battle 
storm, the charge, the broken retreat, the cheer of 
the victors — all echo up to our perch on the crown of 
the giant that sits serene where no political tempest, 
no national convulsion or continental earthquake 
can shake its philosophic calm or its granite founda- 
tion. The smoke of battle rises thick and in fetid 
volumes. Hundreds of souls, the manes of the 
dead, are floating to the skies on that sulphurous 
vapor, and its incense arises from those battle-field 
altars of sacrifice, and the sun hides its face behind 
the white cloud, but tints the attenuated sheet with 
gorgeous colors. Deep brown and red edges shade 
the purple mists, and faint patches of blue open 
like gateways to the fair and glorious heaven 
beyond. 

' 'The battle still rages and roars its puny thunder- 
strokes against the battlement that stretches its 
rocky crest far up into God's own bright sky. 
A violet glory rests over the western horizon. 
Dim stretches of gold radiate from the far-oflP moun- 
tains to the o'erarching zenith, crimson spots paint 



126 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

and mottle the dim sapphire glow that casts its 
glorious mantle over the earth. The gorgeous 
scene slowly faints away beneath the sun's dying 
rays. 'Tis sunset. 

"Twilight comes on apace, and night. Then the 
moon glides up the sky and over the mountain, 
and looks down on a scene of blood, where proud 
mortals cast the lives and pride of a province away. 
It coldly frowns on the battle-field. It sadly smiles 
on Kennesaw." 

"That is indeed beautiful!'' exclaimed Miss Har- 
per, "and how true, too." 

"Yes," replied Captain Ward, "it is a very fine 
piece of word painting,* But ah! listen." 

In the still summer air, just before twilight, they 
could hear the brass bands of the Federal army 
playing the national airs, some "Hail Columbia, 
happy land!" and others, "The star-spangled ban- 
ner, oh, long may it wave!" 

"Yes," exclaimed Miss Harper, after a pause, 
"I wish we could hail Columbia as a happy land; 
but we can't do it until our country's soil is free 

'•'Another very graphic description of this imposing scene 
IS found in the following extra<t from a letter by the correspondent 
of the "Atlanta Register," published during June, 1864: 

"Our object being to visit the mountain, we did not tarry long 
in the city, which one can scarcely recognize as the quiet little 
watering place of years gone liy. 

■:= '■.■■ ■:! It is three miles to the top of Kennesaw Mountain, 
which looms up so plainly as you leave the city (Marietta) that 
you would hardly imagine it half the distance. 

* '-.■■ '■:■ Thought it wouldn't do to stand still, and kept on up 
towards the mountain top. Hadn't gone far before another wicked 
shell went crashintr through the trees overhead, and we went down 
again. Got up again, however, and traveled along the rocky path 
at a very lively pace, until we ensconced ourself behind the works 
of the battery at the apex. After a little while, our ears becoming 
less nice, we strolled outside of the battery, and took a good view 
of the Army of the Cumberland spread out before us in the valley 
below. It was a grand sight, and one worth risking more shells 
than the Yankees can throw at Kennesaw to see. In the distance 
the plains Were dotted with Yankee tents and wagons, here and 




MRS, harper's home. 



128 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

from the invader's tread ; when it is, we can salute 
her in pteans of joy and triumph." 

"Ah!" said Captain Ward, "the Yankees say 
the Southern women do more to bolster up the Con- 
federacy by their tongues than the men do by their 
arms. I see you are a true Southern woman ! " 

"Yes, and I shall always remain so!" said his 
fair comrade, "but listen to that Yankee band play- 
ing the 'Star-spangled banner.' They appropriate 
a Southern man's poetry just as they appropriate 
our homes and our stores. And see those thou- 
sands of tents of our enemies on Georgia soil. 
Oh ! let us go away from here ; it makes me angry 
to look at them; if I stay I shall think and say 
what I ought not. Come, Jack, we must return to 
Marietta." 

"Well, I will go with you," said Captain Ward, 
"and Minon, also, of course. I would detail Minon 
for the special service; but he is not in ccmdition to 

there, like little villages of Southern negro (quarters ; and nearer 
their lines and fortifications were plainly visible, apparently not 
over a mile distant. 

With the aid of a glass we could see the gunners plainly as 
they loaded their pieces, and nearer still could be discerned 
plainly with the naked eye their sharpshooters down lower in the 
valley, popping away now and then at our men. On Little Kenne- 
saw, to our left, a battery of our guns was firing away at the Yankee 
battery farther down to the left, and along both lines, as far as we 
could see puffs of white smoke were ascending from time to time, 
followed by the dull booming of cannon. 

The smoke of the Yankee locomotives on the Western & At- 
lantic Railroad went trailing along the tree tops, and their wagons 
could be seen moving down towards the left of our line. We spent 
some time in looking over the shoulder of a .soldier, who, with 
paper resting on an idle gun, was sketching the scene as it lay, 
like a picture, spread out before him. 

It was hard to leave this mountain top, and the grand view 
which it gives; but we clambered down tlie steep, rocky path, 
dodging, it is true, as we came in full range of the shells again, 
until we reached our horse, which we mounted, and wadecj back 
again through the mud to Marietta. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 129 

help you down the steep side of the mountain. 
We will not go over to Great Kennesaw; but will 
take this military trail down the ravine on the 
south, between the two peaks, and I can arrange at 
the foot of the mountain to send you in an ambul- 
ance to Marietta. We had better go before it gets 
dark." 

"Yes, we had better go at once," replied Miss 
Harper ; "we ought never to have come." 

"Ah! don't say that," said Captain Ward, "for 
if you hadn't come one of the pleasantest episodes of 
a Southern soldier's life would have been unknown 
to me." 

"Then I withdraw the remark, because of the 
mutual pleasure which has been allowed us even in 
the midst of so many scenes of terror," answered 
the young lady with a smile. 

Just as they were turning to leave, they were 
suddenly thrilled by the sound of a brass band but 
a short distance from them, which had struck up 
the inspiring notes of "Dixie." 

It seemed as though the Yankee musical chal- 
lenge met as quick and defiant response as had the 
challenge from their cannon during the day. 
High above the calm atmosphere around the moun- 
tain top the glorious sound arose, and sent a feeling 
of ecstasy into the spirit of every one who heard. 

"Hurrah!" yelled Jack, throwing his cap fully 
ten feet into the air, ' 'Hurrah for our brass band ! " 
and then the soldiers seeing his enthusiastic caper, 
joined and raised a similar shout. Almost like 



130 KENNESAWS BOMBAKDMENT. 

lightning it ran down the whole line, and tremen- 
dous yells arose from the entire division which 
covered the mountain. 

As one of the soldiers exclaimed, "It's almost 
the same as if some one had have jumped a rabbit 
in the midst of the camp." 

The band continued playing, amid the uproarious 
shouts of the soldiery, and soon finished T,he air, 
"Dixie;" and turned to that of "The bonnie blue 
flag." 

"That is good," said Captain Ward, " 'Dixie' is 
more than a match for 'Hail Columbia,' and 'The 
bonnie blue flag' can cap 'The star-spangled banner' 
any day." 

And now again the wild and piercing "rebel yell' 
arose above the mountain top. This was echoed 
back from the hills below by the cheering of the 
Federal soldiery, and thousands of them could be 
heard joining the general shout which was sent to 
meet the defiant "ear splitters" of the Confederates 
on the mountain. Then from Walker's Confederate 
division on the south a prolonged yell sprang forth 
which ran down the line till it was taken up by 
Bate's men in gray. Onward and onward it rolled 
its wild billows of sound until "faint from farther 
distance borne," it died away in a short, sharp 
whoop from Cleburne's heroes. 

For several minutes this continued on the sum- 
mit, until Captain Ward began really to get appre- 
hensive that some of the Yankee gunners might 
open fire again, in order to make the scene livelier 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 131 

in other respects than that of sound. But his fears 
were groundless, for they as well as the Confeder- 
ates seemed to have concluded that there might be 
a truce for awhile between the cannon. 

But after the vociferous uproar had subsided, 
suddenly the band on the summit of the mountain 
began playing, "Home, sweet home!" and, what a 
wonderful change ensued from the noisy demonstra- 
tion which had followed the playing of the military 
airs! 

An fimpressive calm seemed to settle over the 
entire mountain and forests below. The change 
was so sudden, and all the surroundings made it so 
touching that Miss Harper found tears gushing 
from her eyes. 

"Oh, Captain Ward," she exclaimed, "you must 
pardon me; but how I do wish that this war was 
over, and that all of our dear boys were again 
around their firesides at their own sweet homes! 
Oh! would that I could look down the vista of 
years to the time when the bells of mercy shall toll 
the knell of departed wrath ! " 

"Beautiful words, well said ! I cannot blame a 
lady for her tears when I find one dropping from 
my own eye," exclaimed Captain Ward. "Ah! 
when this war is over, may there be less woe amid 
the homes in the south and the north than I have 
sometimes considered there would be." 

Jack came forward and took his sister's hand, 
and whispered, "Sis, just look and see how those 
soldiers are crying. I didn't think they would be 



132 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

so sorry to hear 'Home, sweet home!' played. 
I like to hear it. I think it's a pretty tune." 

There was deep silence everywhere, except the 
soft, sweet music from the band; and when this 
ended, there followed for a few seconds a stillness 
as of death; and then, from far down among the 
Federal works was faintly heard the shout : 

"When this cruel war is over, 
Then we'll all come home again." 

From thousands of throats it seemed to rise, and 
then from the Confederate ranks amid the cloud- 
swept crags was sent forth the good-humored 
refrain : 

"Yes, we'll all come home again!" 

Ah! the immortal brotherhood of man. Oceans 
may separate the persons, time may turn the hair 
gray, bend the stout form and dim the lustre of the 
eyes, hate may for an interval make them as tigers, 
striving to rend to pieces and lap each other's blood ; 
but let the still, small voice of sympathy speak to 
them in the quiet moments, when passion's wildest 
fury is spent, and they would cast aside the dead- 
liest weapons of wrath and clasp hands as children 
around their mother's knees. 

Minon now remarked, "Well, Miss Harper, and 
Captain Ward, I think we had better go before 
it gets too dark." 

"That's so," said Miss Harper, "let us go at once." 

The party then, under Captain Ward's leadership, 
walked along the crest until they reached the slope 



' WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 133 

leading down into the ravine, and there began the 
descent. 

They passed among the files of soldiers who were 
cooking their supper, or sitting down in groups 
among the crags, laughing and talking, and some 
of them reading their favorite newspaper, "The 
Rebel," which, originally published in Chattanooga, 
had been refugeeing before the army, stopping for 
a while in Marietta. 

Sitting apart from these, on a rock, was Ward 
Childs, a nineteen-year-old soldier boy from Mis- 
souri, a member of Guibor's battery. He was 
writing in his diary, and sad was his heart as his 
hand pencilled the words that under the terrific 
fire that day Caldwell Dunlap, brave fellow, had 
lost his left arm, and that Bob Welch and J. B. 
O'Reilly were also badly wounded. Childs was a 
bright young soldier, and a general favorite. 

Major Storrs was among the others, helping Pat 
Quinn to broil some ham. The major, when off 
duty, was always one of the boys, consequently he 
made a personal friend of each of them. Seeing 
the young lady, he immediately came forward and 
shook hands with her, saying, "I was just starting 
a few minutes ago to hunt you up when I was 
informed that Captain Ward was with you ; and as 
there is no one more competent than he to give you 
every attention I remained back in the ranks; but 
permit me now to express my most hearty con- 
gratulations that you passed safely through what 
was really quite an ordeal to veteran soldiers. 



134 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

I hope I shall meet you again, but I should hardly 
wish it were here. And, by the way, General 
French has gone over to the extreme right of the 
line. He said he hoped to see you before you went 
down ; but that in case he did not, asked me if I met 
you to extend to you his congratulations at not 
being hurt to-day and also his sincere good wishes." 

"Thank you so much, Major, for your kind words 
of congratulation, and for a like message from Gen- 
eral French ," answered Miss Harper. ' 'But does n't 
it really seem too wicked to profane so beautiful a 
place as this grand mountain top with the blood 
seeking missiles of hate and death? Our noble old 
Kennesaw ought to have been left to smile down on 
perpetual scenes of peace and happiness. Ah ! the 
Yankees, the home destroying Yankees !" 

"Yes, it really does, "answered the Major; "and you 
will appreciate the comparison when I say that your 
remarks remind me of a humorous scene which 
occurred when we were fighting before Cassville. 
Captain Hoskins, some of whose guns you see right 
behind you, had taken position on an eminence in an 
open space in somebody's front yard. 

"Just as they had gotten everything about ready 
for the fray the old lady of the house came out, and 
said to the captain, in a shrill and very severe tone: 
'I think that things has come to a pretty pass when 
soldiers has to fetch their horses and cannons right 
up into a body's front yard for a fight.' 

"And she stayed there, complaining, until our guns 
opened and the enemy's shells began to whiz by, 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 135 

then she, unlike you, ran down the hill and into the 
woods out of sight." 

"Well," answered Miss Harper, with a merry- 
laugh, "I don't know that I wa% so very much 
unlike the old lady after all; for the only reason I 
didn't run down the hill and far away was because 
they would n't let me, I will have to admit that I 
was in mortal terror for several hours." 

"Yes, but I saw you run right into the midst of 
a fire so severe that the bravest soldiers quailed 
before its deadly fury," said the major. "Few 
heroines have done the like." 

"Ah! it was not heroism, but the responsibility 
of love that forced me to do that," exclaimed the 
young lady with a shudder at the terrible remem- 
brance, and with a serious shake of her head at 
Jack. 

"Well, we put the flag up again, anyhow," said 
Jack. 

"That's true. Jack, you put the flag up again in 
a very brave manner," said the major, patting him 
on the head. "I wish we had more grown men who 
would be as brave as you were." 

After shaking hands with the major, again, the 
young lady and her escort passed along from the 
group of soldiers who were with Major Storrs. 

All the others saluted the party with the cour- 
tesy, which is innate with the men of the South; 
and Miss Harper voiced her heart's sentiments 
when she said in an undertone to Captain Ward, 
'*0h ! our Southern soldiers are gentlemen, as well 



136 KENNESAWS BOMBARDMENT. 

heroes. God bless them ! " 

Down, down the steep sides of Kennesaw they 
wended their way, until at length, just as darkness 
was beginning to make the trail somewhat difficult 
to follow, they reached the level ground at the base. 

Here they found several ambulances which had 
been sent to use in carrying the wounded men to 
Marietta. 

Captain Ward put the party into one of these, 
and then exclaimed ; 

"Ah ! I hear the tattoo beating on the mountain top. 
Farewell, Miss Harper, I sincerely trust that we 
may meet again under much more agreeable con- 
ditions.* God bless you for your presence to-day! 
Good bye, Jack, my dear boy, you are a hero 
already; live for your country and for God! 
Minon, I will see to it that you have a furlough 

*To Captain Ward it was not vonchsafed to see the gratifica- 
tion of this wish, as the following will show : 

=;-. ::: =:•. "Captain Ward was killed at Atlanta. One morning 
just after breakfast I went to General Ector's headquartprs, near 
the line at Atlanta. It was about three-fourths of a mile east of 
Ben Yancey's house and fish pond. The general said he would 
like for me to fire a lew rounds at what he took to be new earth- 
worlis for more batteries in tlie enemy's line to the right of his 
front. Captain Ward's battery bore directly on these points, and 
I requested him to fire about a half dozen rounds. He did so. 
There was no reply from ihe new earthworks ; but from other and 
distant points projectiles were, every few minutes, thrown near 
our line and over us into the city. 

General Ector, Captain Ward and myself were walking leis- 
urely to the rear, Ward having ceased firmg, when Lieut. Cruse 
asked me to sign a pass for him to take his washing to the rear. 

I halfway sat down, and was signing my name when a spher- 
ical case, or shrapnel, from (lie long range guns of the enemy 
exploded just above the heads of Cruse and myself. 

When I arose and handed the lieutenant his pafs, to my 
astonishment I saw General Ector lying on the ground apparently 
struggling to rise. We ran to him »nd found his leg shattered 
at the knee. Litter-bearers with Major Redwine, of Henderson, 
Rusk Co.. Texas, now dead, ran up and carried the general under 
an arbor at the breastworks. 

I had not seen Captain Ward until the litter-bearers came up, 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 13 

for at least two months. Go ahead to Marietta, 
driver!" and then, after a courteous wave of the 
hand, he turned and sought the way up the moun- 
tain again. 

Miss Harper wiped the tears from her eyes and 
exclaimed: "There goes the perfect type of a South- 
ern gentleman! God bless his noble soul!" 

The clatter of the wheels of the ambidance 
enlivened the evening air, and within about a half 
hour's time the party had arrived at Miss Harper's 
home. 

And what need be added here? The reader can 
guess the sequel. After the cruel war was over 
a noble husband and a beautiful and sweet bride — 
not unheard of by us — received the congratulations 
of scores of friends. 

Among the decorations of the church were fern 
leaves gathered from the sides of Kennesaw Moun- 
tain. 

then I noticed the captain also down. A ball from the shrapnel 
had lodged in his thigh It was too high up for the limb to be 
amputated, and he died a few days afterward. 

Gen. Ector's leg was taken off. He practiced law in Texas for 
a number of years after the war; was elected Judge of the Court of 
Appeals, and filled the office'with much credit to his integrity and 
legal ability. ■' 

Captain Ward was a man of remarkable nerve. I have seen 
him under trying circumstances, and he was always cool and his 
mind clear. He was perfectly calm for three days upon his death- 
bed. 1 sat hy him much of the time, and at the request of Bishop 
Lay, of the Episcopal Church, wrote out for the benefit of the 
captain's wife and children an account of the manner of his death, 
and giving my testimony as an eye-witness to the high order of 
his patriotic and meritorious services."— Letter from Major Storrs 
to the author. 

"July 27th.— This morning when on the lines the enemy 
opened fire on Ward's battery, which was responded to on our 
part. As it was about ceasing a shell, exploding over the works, 
severely woimded General Ector in the left thigh, rendering 
amputation necessary, and wounded Captain John J. Ward, of the 
artillery, mortally. Captain Ward was a fine soldier, and his loss 
was severely felt.— From Gen. S. Q. French's official report of 
operations in front of Atlanta. 

Further on General French refers to Captain Ward as a "most 
estimable gentleman and gallant officer." 



138 KENNESAWS BOMBARDMENT. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Night came on at length, and the thick clouds 
which threatened another rain laid a pall of Egyp- 
tian darkness over the mountain and the entire 
country around. No moonbeam, not a single star's 
ray broke through the canopy of gloom overhead. 

From Marietta on the south and from the Federal 
lines on the north not even the gigantic form of 
Kennesaw was visible. 

But by those upon its two summits the lights in 
the windows of the beautiful little city were plainly 
observed, as were the headlights of a couple of loco- 
motives which were coming on the railroad from 
Marietta up toward the Confederate entrenchments 
at the foot of the mountain, while a magnificent 
panorama greeted their eyes when they turned in 
the opposite direction. 

Beginning east of the railroad and extending 
westward, in front of and apparently almost under 
the two peaks, thence bending and sweeping south- 
ward for miles, were the camp fires of the Federal 
army. It was hardly an exaggeration to say that 
ten thousand fires, like twinkling stars, blazed amid 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 139 

the camps of Sherman's hundred thousand veterans* 
on the hills and among the forests around and 
benea'h them. The myriad lights dazzled their 
eyes; and, although they were widely scattered, 
yet the general trend was a continuous one, and the 
"milky way" seemed to have its counterpart in the 
new firmament which war had spread out below 
them. 

Parallel to this, and separated from it at an 
average distance of hardly half a mile, were the 
Confederate camp fires. These, however, were 
more irregular and not half so many in number, 
their prettiest feature being the fires on the other 
peak of Kennesaw, northeastward of them, which 
blazed apparently amid air like a chain of veritable 
stars in the sky. 

The prototype of these was found in the Federal 
camp fires on Lost Mountain, about six miles to the 
west, which, through the misty darkness, shone like 
a dimly discerned, but gigantic constellation. 

"A wondrously magnificent spectacle, isn't it?" 
exclaimed General French to Generals Cockrell 
and Ector, as the three and a few others stood in 
an open space on a large rocky knob, just where 
the western end of Little Kennesaw began sloping 
downward, and from which point they could com- 
mand an unobstructed view of the Federal line, 

* "I think all will be ready in three (3) days. I will have nearly 
one hundred thousand (100,000) men."— Dispatch from Gen. Sher- 
man to Gen. Grant, July 12, 1864. 

This was fifteen days after the great battle of Kennesaw Moun- 
tain in which Sherman's army met a disastrous repulse, with 
heavy loss, conseauently his numbers before the battle must have 
exceeded one hundred thousand men. 



140 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

from the bright glare of the fires on the east and in 
front of them, to where they grew fainter, until, 
miles away, in the far south, their presence was 
indicated only by a luminous haze which filled the 
atmosphere above them. 

"Beautiful! beautiful," exclaimed General Cock- 
rell. 

"What a pity that instead of the light of festive 
lamps it is the blaze of the torch of war!" added 
General French. 

"And that it is war," said Major Storrs, "we 
haraly need further confirmatory evidence than to 
listen to that popping sound of the picket firing, 
which we can even now hear, and the occasional 
booming of cannon down on Hardee's front. Look 
yonder; you can see the little flashes from small 
arms, sometimes a hundred at once, and several 
times a mmute from our batteries or the enemy's 
the blaze of fire from the artillery and the quick 
burst of light as the shell explodes. Even night 
fails to ensure a cessation of the work of killing."* 

For sometime they stood surveying the panorama 
of splendors which engirdled the mountain, each 
seeming awed beyond the desire of speech. 

Colonel Barry then remarked to the commander, 
"General, don't you think we would have the 
advantage if our batteries were to open upon them 

'"■ "The usual flank exteusion is going on. Troops on both sides 
move to left, and now the blue smoke ff the musket discloses the 
line by day trending away, far away south toward the Chattahoo- 
chee, and by night it is marked at times by the red glow of the 
artillery amidst the spark-like flash of small arms that looks m 
the distance like innumerable fireflies."— From General French's 
Diary during June, 1864. 



WAKING UP THE BATTEKIES. 141 

to-night? We could see exactly where to fire, and 
their aim would be literally in the air, as the night 
is too dark for them to even see the mountain, and 
their task would be like shooting at stars. They 
would have nothing to fire at, except the flash of 
our pieces, apparently away up in the heavens, and 
that would die away before they could sight their 
guns at it." 

"I was just thinking," answered General French, 
"as to whether that would work. They might, 
while our attention was diverted by our artillery 
practice, attenjpt to storm our position under cover 
of the darkness. However, as a double precaution 
I think I will have you and General Cockrell to 
post two lines of skirmishers, one beyond the foot 
of the mouniain, and the other — the regular one — 
about half way down, to guard against that con- 
tingency, and then let Major Storrs and his captains 
treat them to a display of falling stars." 

"That is perfectly agreeable to us," exclaimed the 
major; "and now, while the infantry boys are taking 
position, I will go back and have our guns run 
forward in all the batteries, and make ready for a 
simultaneous discharge, when the signal is given. 
As those rascals down yonder are keeping our men 
awake just for pure devilment we will give them 
occasion to begin to do some lively dodging them- 
selves." 

"And we will arrange our part of it at once," 
said General Cockrell to Colonel Barry, "and will 
notify you very soon." 



142 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

"Well, gentlemen," said General Ector, "my 
picket line, which has been pushed down to the foot 
of the mountain as soon as darkness came on, as is 
the case every night, will protect me against sur- 
prise. But, by the way. General Cockrell, didn't 
the Yankee batteries worry you a good deal to-day 
down yonder on the hill?" 

"Well, I should say they did," remarked General 
Cockrell. "As one of my artillerymen said, their 
fire was perfectly abominable. It swept the hill 
top like a tornado; and the only safety was in 
lying close in the trenches. It was even worse than 
it was the first day* we took position there. The 
ground is now almost completely obstructed by a 

''=A gentleman who was a member of Hoskins' battery, says 
of that day's events on the hill at the western end of Little Kejine- 
saw: "About four o'clock, the same day, two rifle Parrott's of 
Hoskins' battery were drawn up the back way of this hill, and 
pulled around by hand, and put in position, in open view of the 
enemy, about halfway up the hill, about forty feet back of Gen. 
Cockrell's lines, or works, which would make us shoot over the 
Missourians. [This open space of rock with huge bowlders scat- 
tered loosely over its surface is easily found by the visitor. — 
Author.] 

The object, it was said, was to find the enemy. We opened fire, 
which was the first gun from Kennesaw. 

We found them. The smoke had not cleared away from the 
guns before the enemy opened with at least thirty guns, and things 
went to pieces, whde our men took shelter in the infantry pits of 
Cockrell's brigade; but not until two men were shot down, and 
a wheel taken away. This first fire in the valley killed two and 
wounded three men of Hoskins' battery. The enemy's fire ceased 
in about ten minutes, but it had made paths of destruction while 
it lasted. 

Orders were then given for ns to roll back the guns, which was 
done, after making some repairs; but the strange thing was that 
we were permitted to do this without being fired upon. 

It reminded one of a bee gum, and no one was anxious to stir 
them up." 

Prooably the heaviest artillery fire at any one time by Sher- 
man was here, and concentrated on so small a spot. Out of fifteen 
of our cannoniers with these two guns, eight either sleep among 
the neglected graves on Kennesaw, or are hobbling through life as 
cripples. The slight wounds were not counted, as an arm or leg 
must be gone to unfit our men for duty. — Letter from a member of 
Hoskins' battery to the Author. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 143. 

tangle of boughs which their shells have torn from' 
the trees."* 

The party then separated, and orders were at 
once sent to all at interest. 

Within a few minutes the "tramp, tramp, tramp" 
of about a couple of hundred men from each 
brigade echoed amid the crags, through the night 
air; and soon they disappeared in the forest, down 
the rugged steeps. 

Major Storrs waited more than an hour, during 
which the guns had been placed in position, the 
ammunition distributed, and everything made fully 
ready for the work appointed for his batteries, and 
which the men were very eager for. 

General French himself, also, personally went 
from one end of the ridge to the other, inspecting 
the arrangement of the artillery, and giving direc- 
tions as to the execution of the plan, wherever the 
location called for different details. He likewise 
sent word to the Confederates on Great Kennesaw, 
of the proposed bombardment. 

During the interim before "the ball was to open" 
the officers joined their several messes at supper. 
Major Storrs, however, "dropped in to take a snack,"" 
as he expressed it, with the boys of Hoskins' battery, 
who were at the big rock at the eastern end of the 
crest of Little Kennesaw. Games and Walker, of 
the division band, were there, the latter with a new 

^^JuNE 25.— * * =:= "Went early to the left of my line ; could 
not ride in rear of Hoskins' Battery, on account of the trees and 
limbs felled by the shells."— From General French's Diary durine 
June, 1864. •' * 

10 



144 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

song which he had found in the Atlanta Daily 
Intelligencer, published the day before. 

By general request he sang this, Carnes playing 
his cornet, just before supper. The delicious 
melody of the instrument, combined with the rich 
baritone voice of the singer, afforded the hearers a 
treat which was all the more highly enjoyed when 
they realized what different kind of "music" they 
would soon be hearing. Though the singer ha? 
now passed away, though the newspaper which 
published the song no longer makes its daily appear- 
ance, though the banner and cause which inspired it 
are respectively furled and gone into history, the 
and under changed conditions is maintaining its 
glory and is still as dear to its children, and the 
song is as sacred to the heart now as then, and is 
here reproduced : 

THEY ASK ME TO DESERT MY LAND. 

During our imprisonment at Point Lookout, every 
prisoner was brought before an officer, and had several 
questions propounded him, among which was, "Do you 
wish to take the oath of allegiance ?" which caused me to 
write these lines : 

Air — Wait till the war, love, is over. 
They ask me desert my land. 

Its history and glory, 
Whose faith is penned sublimely grand, 

In thrilling epic story — 
Whose strength is written on ploughed plains 

By war's red, fiery finger. 
Where crushing battle-shocks and stains 

Of carnage ever linger. 
Dear land, loved land, thou art my home forever. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 145 

They ask me to desert my land, 

Lee, Beauregard and Davis, 
Bright names that fondest hopes have fanned, 

Bright heroes that will save us ; 
Johnston, Longstreet, Stuart, too, 

From them they would me sever, 
And in my country's hlood imbrue 

My hands — I answer, never! 
Dear land, loved land, thou art my home forever. 
They ask me to desert my land. 

My banner proud and peerless, 
..ind charge no more with blade in hand 

Beside the brave and fearless — 
Through battle clouds, 'mid fire and shell — 

Fair freedom's land defending, 
And hearing despot's dying knell. 

With shouts of vict'ry blending. 
Dear land, loved land, thou art my home forever. 
They ask me to desert my land. 

My tie of country sever. 
Affix a traitor's deed and brand 

Upon my name forever. 
They do not know the heart that beats 

Beneath my bosom's swelling — 
I'd rather, in my winding sheets, 

Sleep in my last clay dwelling. 
Dear land, loved land, thou art my home forever. 

They ask me to desert my land. 

To which my life is given. 
And with my spirit fear to stand 

Within the court of Heaven. 
Fair, sunny land you trusted me 

Amid the shock of battle — 
My arm shall strike to set thee free, 

Again when cannons rattle. 
Dear land, loved land, thou art my home forever, 

J. J. Mc. C. 



146 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

Ah! land of the South, thou hast been called 
"imperial land," and well thou meritest the title, 
for the iron of an empire's strength, and the gold 
of an empire's wealth, the marble of an empire's 
majesty and the harvests of an empire's life thou 
givest forth from thy bosom; and in thy myriad 
homes, by the rolling ocean, or amid plains mantled 
by the evergreen pines, or where the oaks cover 
the hills and quiet valleys, or upon the towering 
mountains, thou nurturest a race of the fairest 
women and the bravest men that e'er the sun shone 
on. But a nobler glory is thine. Thy throne is in 
the hearts of thy children. 

The Briton's breast swells with pardonable pride 
as he stands ready to boast or to fight for merry 
England, the record of whose prowess has gone 
through a thousand years of toil or of warfare. The 
Russian, at the command of his sceptred tyrant, 
follows with blind devotion the banner of his 
grotesquely mis-named "holy Russia," regardless of 
whether that banner leads to the defense of her 
soil or the oppression of the weak. The German 
fills his speeches and his songs with praise of his 
"Fatherland," and then — leaves it for a freer coun- 
try. The Frenchman glorifies each hill and valley 
of "la belle France," and his heart thrills with 
patriotic ecstasy, as he goes forth to do battle for 
her fame ; but nowhere in all the world stands there 
a country whose children love it with such heart- 
brightening affection as do those of our sunny 
Southland. To their minds she is the Queen-land, 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 147 

to their hearts she is the Mother-land, to their souls 
she is the God-favored land ; and, though they have 
been falsely called traitors to a government whose 
laws have been mal-administered by unprincipled 
partisans, yet they stand true to her, to her tradi- 
tions and her glory; and shame be upon the hand 
and heart of that one of her sons who would turn 
back when she called him ! 

At length couriers arrived from Colonels Thos. 
M. Carter and W. H. Clark who commanded the 
skirmish lines, — the latter having gone to the foot 
of the mountain and the former having stopped 
about half way down, — that they had relieved the 
pickets, and assumed the positions assigned them, 
and that the immediate neighborhood was free of 
the enemy. 

General French, who had not gone down to his 
headquarters, which were near the foot of the 
mountain on the south, and who was eating supper 
with his staff behind a tremendous bowlder, (so 
that the light of the fire would not be observed by the 
Federals,) then remarked to Major Sanders, "Well, 
it is now twenty minutes past nine o'clock; tell 
Major Storrs to open tire from all the batteries 
exactly ten minutes from now. The signal will be 
the discharge of a musket from this point. Tell him 
to order the men to fire rapidly ; but with as great 
precision as possible. We want to punish the 
enemy badly before they get ready to reply." 

Major Sanders at once passed the orders to the 



148 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

artillery captains, and within a few minutes 
returned and reported all ready. 

The general then called Lieutenant Mother- 
shead, who was talking to Colonel Young, and said, 
"Lieutenant, take that musket and fire it. It is 
loaded with a blank cartridge; but I hope its dis- 
charge will mean the utter confusion of the enemies 
of our country and her institutions." 

"General, here goes for a little discharge which 
will rouse the entire Yankee army." 

With that remark he aimed in the direction of 
the Federal camps and fired. 

A bright flash ensued and the sharp report of the 
musket rang out amid the darkness. 

For an instant afterward there was silence as 
of death, then like the burst of a thunder-cloud, 
almost simultaneously from nine cannon, darted 
sheets of flame which lit up the whole summit of 
Little Kennesaw and shot their glare athwart the 
mist which overhung Noonday valley and its boun- 
dary hills, and, immediately following, a deafening 
roar shook the very crags, and, with terrific rever- 
berations, woke the country for a dozen miles 
around. 

Its startling echoes had scarcely died away ere 
from thousands of throats a tremendous yell leaped, 
till even in Marietta it seemed that the whole moun- 
tain was alive. 

This was caught up by those of the soldiers on 
Great Kennesaw, who were awake, and a sound 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 149 

"as of many waters" swept onward and onward 
through the air around the grand peaks. 

The next moment it was repeated by General 
French's division, who seemed almost wild with|the 
thrilling enthusiasm. Officers and men sprang up 
and shouted as if mad, and, to cap the climax, 
several soldiers fired their muskets off into the air. 
The example was contagious, and from hundreds 
arose the cry "That's right; let's give 'em a regular 
Confederate salute!" and, grasping their guns, they 
began firing, — the rattling explosions coming now 
singly, then in bunches, finally in whole platoons, 
until pandemonium seemed turned loose on Kenne- 
saw. 

The star-like flashes from the countless muskets, 
to the eyes of those who saw it in Marietta and in 
the Confederate and Federal trenches on the south, 
presented a scene of wondrous btilliancy. Thou- 
sands of men in Cleburne's and Walker's divis- 
ions, and in the other Confederate divisions had 
directed their gaze toward the mountain as soon as 
the deafening reports of the first discharge had 
burst like thunder from the sky, and now, as the 
blaze of the cannon and the quick flashes of the 
musketry firing burst out of the gloom some of the 
soldiers exclaimed, "It is like myriads of fire-flies 
playing around shooting stars." 

They watched the bombardment with intense 
interest, * although it was too dark for them to dis- 

*"For the last three or four days (with the exception of to-day) 
there hai been a furious artillery duel going on between our bat- 
teries on Kennesaw and the enemy's. We have a beautiful view of 



150 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

tinguish the mountain, and the whole scene for the 
next few hours appeared like the play of fiery 
meteors in the heavens. 

But the artillery battalion on Little Kennesaw 
wasted no time in cheering. They viewed the 
explosion of their first volley of shells, whose blaze 
lit up the forest wherever they fell, and then 
hastened back to their guns, and began executing 
with great zeal and energy the order to "fire 
rapidly." 

Generals French, Ector, Cockrell, Colonels 
Young, Barry and Gates, and Majors Storrs, 
Sanders and several others took position on top of 
a tremendous bowlder to note the effect of the 
bombardment from their batteries. 

Of course, through the intense darkness no move- 
ment of the Federals could be observed ; and there- 
fore the principal interest was in watching the play 
of their own fire. 

For some minutes they stood, noticing the bright 
light which would here and there suddenly dart 
forth among or above the steady blaze of the Fed- 
eral camp fires. 

Soon, however, the latter began disappearing, 
first one, then another, then scores, and the veil of 
darkness was gradually being drawn over the entire 
prospect below them on the north. 

the mountain from our position, and amuse ourselves watching 
the enemy's shells burst on the mountain, and see our guns reply 
to the enemy's. They have been firing frequently after dark. 
Then it is a beautiful sight to see the shells burst, and the long 
stream of fire from our guns when they fire." — Letter from a 
soldier in Walker's division, dated June 26, 1864, and printed in 
Augusta Constitutionalist, July 1, 1864. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 151 

"Ha! ha!" exclaimed Col. Gates, "our fire is 
becoming too close and hot for them ; they are put- 
ting out their own." 

"Yes," replied Col. Barry, "they want to give us 
as great uncertainty in aim as they will have at us," 

"Never mind, gentlemen," said General French, 
"whenever they get to their guns, and settle down 
to business, they will do their best to knock some 
of Colonel Barry's 'stars' out of the Kennesaw 
heavens. But this is good work which is going on 
now; and by the time they can open all their bat- 
teries, and get the range of 'the stars' there will 
be a sorry tale for them to tell among their own 
luminaries. Keep it up, Major Storrs, I like the 
way those shells of yours are lighting up the dark- 
ness down yonder before us." 

"Ah, this is superb!" answered the latter. 
"This practice is as fine as I ever saw at night. 
The Yankees will have been worried pretty badly 
before they are able to reply." 

For fully five minutes this continued without 
interruption, during which the scene on the moun- 
tain top around them was one long to be remem- 
bered, — the flashes of the discharges lighting up 
the clouds of smoke, and the silhouettes of the men 
calling to mind the classic fables of the Cyclops 
forging the thunderbolts for Jove. 

Suddenly General French, who had been ever 
and anon casting his eyes toward the crest of Great 
Kennesaw, without a word, touched Major Storrs 



152 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

and Colonel Gates on their shoulders, and then 
pointed to the east. 

"Hurrah!" exclaimed the colonel, "Major Pres- 
ton has again followed suit in the right way. We 
can always depend upon him to be on hand when- 
ever his aid will do good." 

Every one looked, and within a couple of min- 
utes two bright flashes of light darted from the 
high summit, and, as they lit up the clouds around 
them of their own and the one whose discharge had 
been first seen by General French, their sharp, 
"boom! boom!" shook the air, and were plainly 
distinguished amid the roar of the guns immediately 
around the party. 

The trail of the shells could be followed by the 
eye, as the sparks from the burning fuses were 
strung out behind them like a chain of shining 
beads, and then their successive explosions, near 
the Federal camps, told that the dogs of war were 
on a keen scent for human blood. 

From the throngs of soldiers who lined the top of 
Little Kennesaw a deafening yell followed. 

Their lusty cheering, however, had hardly ceased 
enlivening the darkness ere a quick flash and sharp, 
crashing sound about two hundred yards down the 
mountain side told them that the Federals had at 
length opened upon them. 

"Aha! General," laughed Colonel Barry, "you 
observe they are trying to knock my 'stars' out of 
the Kennesaw sky; and, just as I told you, they 
can't see very well how to get the range." 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 153 

"No!" replied General French, "we need not 
fear that they will write of us in their bulletins 
'driven from their guns' for quite a number of min- 
utes yet. Look! three of Captain Ward's pieces 
went off then at exactly the same instant; and 
yonder the shells have exploded fully a hundred 
yards apart each." 

For about ten minutes thereafter there was a con- 
tinued succession of stunning reports from the 
summits of Great and Little Kennesaw, as the Con- 
federates maintained a rapid and vigorous bombard- 
ment upon the Federal positions, which were still 
easily located by the camp fires and other lights in 
their midst; and only the occasional explosion of an 
answering shell was seen or heard, and these were 
apparently fired rather wildly. 



154 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Suddenly, however, from the summit of Pine 
Mountain, northwest of Little Kennesaw, the Con- 
federates perceived a sky-rocket ascending the 
heavens. 

It hardly cleaved its glittering way upward, 
through the canopy of gloom, and exploded, scat- 
tering its thousand sparks in as many directions, 
ere from the hill behind Noonday creek, east of the 
Western & Atlantic Railroad, another was observed, 
climbing upward, upward, upward, through the 
drifting mists, and, like a child of the stars, seek- 
ing the zenith to join its parents in splendor. 

Almost as high as the great peak it rushed ; then, 
as it burst with a sharp report, the head of this 
messenger ot fire seemed crowned with a galaxy of 
dazzling brilliants. 

Its radiant sparks were still falling like a shower 
of gold, when from near the Hardage house, and 
from the Lattiraer place, two others shot aloft, each 
dragging a chain of light behind it. Then from 
Brush Mountain westward to the Wallace farm and 
far to the south, the air seemed alive with blazing 
serpents, darting upward, hissing, leaving a trail of 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 155 

fire behind, and spitting baleful embers at the 
mountain, before the darkness breathed its chilling 
breath upon them and, dissolving in convulsive 
agonies, they sank from view.* 

"Magnificent!" exclaimed General French, who 
with his comrades was looking, almost entranced 
with admiration, upon the awe-inspiring scene, 
"I have never beheld so grand a spectacular drama 
as this which is rising from behind and amid the 
myriad footlights down before us." 

"Yes," replied Major Storrs, "but our artillery is 
throwing some of war's most poisonous bouquets 
under the noses of those who seek to terrify us by 
its display." 

"The majesty on high!" ejaculated Lieuten- 
ant Manning, "what a glittering panorama 'our 
friends, the enemy,' are exhibiting to us ! " 

"Oh, my! brother Manning," put in Lieutenant 
Mothershead, "here we've caught you at the 
theatre (of war); and, — who would have thought 
it? — looking at a spectacular drama, as General 
French calls it." 

"Well, there's no ballet about it," said the 
preacher-lieutenant with a laugh, "so you'll make 
some allowance for me on that score." 

*Some of the eitizenK of Marietta who were residing there 
during the siege state that these displays of fireworks occurred 
several nights before the great battle of June 27, and that on one 
or two occasions they were grand and magnificent beyond expres- 
sion. 

A gentleman, who ;vas an officer in Sherman's army, has stated 
to the author that these fiery demonstrations were made for the 
purpose of alarmins: the Confederates with the apprehension that 
night attacks were imminent, and thus by disturbing their rest at 
night and constant fighting by day, to have them physically worn 
out by the time the great assault was made along the entire line. 



156 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

"Yes, but I fear it means that there will soon be 
some bullet!" exclaimed Captain Canniff, with the 
French accent on the last syllable of his last word. 

"Boom! boom! boom! boom!" — like the roll of 
the thunder of fate, from east to west the opening 
roar of Sherman's cannon broke upon the ear. In 
one grand volley, following the signal of the sky- 
rockets, they hurled forth a howling tempest of 
shells toward the crest of Little Kennesaw. 

The next instant a shower of flashing lightnings 
seemed to dart forth from the midst of miniature 
greyish-colored clouds above the forests at the base 
of the mountain, or far up its sides, or beyond 
either end, and high in the air behind it, while the 
rattling din of their explosion echoed and re-echoed 
around the clifls and clear back to the ears of the 
angry Federals who had sent them upward on their 
futile errand of wrath. 

"Ha! ha! ha! ha!" "Whoopee!" "Try it again, 
Yanks!" "Shooting at the stars!" "Hurrah for 
the night!" and scores of similar expressions burst 
from the Confederates, as a peal of jolly and 
derisive laughter rang from one end of the long 
crest to the other, on perceiving that not one, out 
of probably fifty shells, had struck within a hundred 
yards of the parapets. 

"AVhat was it I said about their shooting at the 
stars, gentleman?" asked Colonel Barry with a 
<3omical emphasis of tone. 

"Oh, you are the hero of the prophecy!" General 
French good-humoredly replied. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 157 

"Yes," said Major Storrs, "I think this will be a 
field night for us. We may not get much sleep for 
the next few hours ; but I'll guarantee that our eyes 
will not be as red as theirs to-morrow morning. 
That was a grand pyrotechnic display they gave us 
a few minutes ago; but before we get through with 
this bombardment I opine their shells and ours will 
make a grander and more tennble one." 

"That's so," exclaimed Pat Qui nn, "I think the 
chances are that we are all going to get on a 'grand 
bvim' to-night, and that there'll be a good many red 
eyes on both sides by daybreak." 

"Well, we might draw straws," said Lieutenant 
Richardson,* "for who among us will make the 
best shots at that line of fire down before us ; and 
the Yankees can toss coppers to guess at the one Oa 
their gunners who will explode his shell the farthest 
away from our perch up here. I'll bet a Confeder- 
ate shin-plaster to a twenty-dollar gold piece that 
our firing will be twenty times as true as theirs." 

"There's not much risk of that bet bankrupting 
you, Lieutenant, even if you lose it," interjected 
Lieutenant Cruse with a hearty laugh. 

"Well, I'm willing to reverse it, then," said 
Richardson good-humoredly, "since you've caught 
on, and won't let me have all the chances." 

During all this period the batteries on both crests 

* Since the first eight forms of this book have been printed, 
a letter from a lady in Nashville, Tenn., vpho is well acquainted 
with Lieutenant Richardson (who is now a resident of that city,) 
informs the author that his name is Edwin R. Richardson, and not 
William Richardson. These two gentlemen are brothers, hence, 
probably the source of the error by our first informant. 



158 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

of Kennesaw were maintainiDg a continuous shel- 
ling, and their missiles were flying, frequently with 
great precision, into the camps of the Federals. 

The latter had by this time extinguished the 
greater portion of their fires; but the incessant 
flashes of light from the guns in all their batteries 
were reflected against the smoke, and afforded even 
a better mark for their enemy's aim than they pre- 
viously enjoyed. To get the range of the nearest of 
these they, in some instances, depressed their guns 
considerably and reduced charges, while to reach 
the farthest they elevated their muzzles by sinking 
the trails into pits already dug behind them, which 
they ordinarily kept filled with rocks easy to remove. 

The intense darkness of the night was the source 
of very great disadvantage to the Federals. They 
could not even see the mountain; and the blaze 
from the few guns the Confederates had, notwith- 
standing the zealous energy with which they were 
worked, was visible but two or three times a minute, 
and then apparently darting out from the sky, 
sometimes nearly a couple of hundred yards apart. 
There was no comparative object by which to locate 
their position, and Colonel Barry's remark was a 
very apt one, as they seemed literally like stars in 
the heavens; and so far as aiming at them was con- 
cerned, they were even worse than stars, for their 
flash, like lightning, was only seen for an instant 
at a time, and, before the piece could be sighted 
toward it, it had disappeared behind the clouds, 
and even the explosion of their own shells was no 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 159 

accurate guide, as it was impossible to tell by look- 
ing at the flash whether it was near the Confeder- 
ate guns or two hundred yards before or behind 
them. 




^^^^ • -^'— -' -.-i "i^^iij 



KENNESAW'S BOMBAKDMENT. 

Still with the pluck and indomitable perseverance 
which are characteristic of the American soldier 
wherever found, they gamely returned the fire 



160. KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT?/ 

which was so annoy iagi to them, and, f]l(^ hfM^Vfti 
after battery, over a hundred guns hurled the hj^; 
sing l>olts of wrath against the mount of termors. , \ (,• 

As during the day, their attention was principallyi 
directed toward Little Kennesaw, and, as nearly as 
they could determine it, their missiles thundered 
around its crest. 

Their aim, while at no time perfect in the dark- 
ness, nevertheless gradually became better, until by . 
about eleven o'clock the bombardment reached its 
culmination, both as regarded its accuracy and 
magnitude. 

Those who surveyed it from the crest of Great 
Kennesaw declared that it was impossible to describe 
the terrible beauty and majesty of the scene. It was 
a constantly changing panorama of splendors, whose 
magnificence awed while it fascinated. 

The rapid succession of brilliant flashes out of the 
darkness which enveloped the other peak appeared 
as lightning darting from a monstrous chain of 
thunder clouds, while the tumultuous roar from 
their midst caused, as it were, the very mountain ' 
tself to quake. 

But not here did the storm of warlike glories 
exhaust itself. The most resplendent spectacle 
it presented was in the meteor-like rush and the 
dazzling explosions of the scores and hundreds of 
shells which were poured forth from the Federal 
batteries far below them. As they rushed upward 
frequently the sparks from their fuses like fiery,. 
rainbows arched through the gloom, and, to use,. 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 161 

,9, soldier's words,— "each scattered a bag of gold," 
"as it burst with blinding blaze and terrific detona- 
(tions against the mountain ,^ifie .or, high ,ip itlje air 

^a,lj>o,ve or beyond it. i, ;, ,- , .iiiv . 

f^ ;VLool^!" e?:ciaijned Majpr Prestpni,^ (General 

Reynolds, who was with him on the summit of the 

great crest,, "it is, like a shower of falling stars! " 

t,f.4tl^?s,",i^aptlie,, response, "and it is hardly more 

"pernicious to our boys. The Yankees, somehow 

or other, don't seem to be able to get the range of 

.^Ijhe summit with any certainty. You see, nearly 

.(forty of their shells explode down against the slope, 

,.or pass over the ridge and light up the southern 

^^4^,jt)Pr,\?Jiere one strikes near the parapet. I have 

""been watching the level of our guns as shown by 

the blaze when they fire, and that of the bursting of 

{the enemy's shells. The honors to-night are clearly 

..ours. The Yanke^,,,bpinb^rd^9^1(,.^^.^si^lX3^ 

..magnificent display.", .,...j+ ,,[.(.,{. c>t{t Tihau hm 

r "Ha! see that!" exclaimed Major Preston, "one 

of our shells and a Yankee Parrott shell met 'mid 

''jair and es;ploded almost simultaneously ; by concus- 

J sion with each other. Such a scene isn't witnessed 

"once for every te^^^thpu^nd ^helkjred.^^ Wasn't 

it a grand sightr ^^rj .^^ nc'f^r.tijgm eidT ^ 

"It was as brilliant as a collision between two 
-sky-rockets," answered G eneral Reynolds, _ _''only 

p^t was more terrific." ^^^'Z.'oi xii^avui^t/l M ^'rf-rf 

In Marietta during this time hundreds ot anxious 

\citizens and soldiers crowded the streets and highest 

iills and the bridge over the railroad south of the 



162 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

depot, having been awakened by the astounding 
uproar of the artillery. 

All eyes were turned toward Kennesaw Moun- 
tain, which was soon determined as the battle 
center, and with breathless interest they watched 
the incessant play of fire, apparently in the sky; 
but, as all knew, really upon the summit. 

But at one point in the edge of town, at least, 
the signal of encouragement and of hearty "good 
cheer" was exhibited to the view of the dauntless 
heroes on the mountain top. This was at the 
Georgia Military Institute. The cadets were tem- 
porarily in reserve, and at their old headquarters in 
the college building, which was on a commanding 
hill on the southern border of Marietta. 

For years the soldier boys had been trained up 
here; and from all parts of the state the flower of 
its young manhood had within these classic walls 
and under the noble trees, studied the upper 
branches of finished education, and been instructed 
thoroughly in the school of Mars, not only from 
books, but also by drilling on the college grounds 
and in open fields, where they were taught all the 
evolutions practised by the finished veteran. 

This institution was the pride of the state, 
and yearly, at its "commencement" exercises, the 
beauty, culture and wealth of the state assembled 
here at Marietta to see the boys graduate. And 
not only from Georgia, but from the Carolinas, 
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and other southern 
fctates came their wisdom, beauty and fashion to at- 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 163 

tend these exercises; for from several southern states 
was the Institute's patronage drawn. 

Governor Brown, of Georgia, always made it a 
special point to be personally present on "Commence- 
ment day ; " and other governors before him gave it 
the official sanction of their presence. Ah ! those 
were palmy days; shall their like ever be seen again? 

When the step of the hostile invader was at 
length upon the soil of Georgia and the bullet and 
torch were doing their work of destroying the lives 
of her sons and the homes of her women and babes, 
the cadets threw aside their books, and, under their 
commander, Major F. W. Capers, went to the front. 
They took part in the desperate battles above 
Rome and at other points, and were afterward 
placed on detached duty of great importance. 

Temporarily at their old quarters, when the first 
sounds of the firing echoed through the darkness of 
the night, the long roll of the drum (beaten by 
the diminutive old negro, Cornelius, whom every 
cadet remembers,) startled and called them to arms. 
Formed on the campus within a few minutes, amid 
the music of Cornelius' drum and pompous old 
black Charley's fife,'^' they beheld the play of the 
warlike fires around the summit of the mountain. 

They stood in line for some time, and then, 
at the suggestion of several, by consent of their 

-;One of the former cadets, in talking to the author about the 
Institute, and the days when he was there, laughed very heartily 
about old Cornelius and Charley. The former, he said, was a 
Small sized negro, pretty well up in years, and the very personifica- 
tion of dignity. He never met a cadet but that he gave him the' 
military salute and always e.xpected one in return. While thor- 
oughly and almost oppressively deferential to the "seasoned ca- 
dets," Cornelius nevertheless considered himself really far supe- 



commander, they broke ranks, and, hastening mi6- 
the college building; 'an4*''€*thei's, secured- ail' tb^e' 
candles and lamps which Were available, and soon 
had every window on the north side illuminated. 
Huge bonfir(8S wfere also built iii the open space fii' 
front of the Main building, and thus the bo^s' 
signaled their good wishes and applause to the gun- 
ners on Ken nesawi^ij*i'->ijE ^^^^ '^^> *P^8 dill ayd// 

;,im V, :',*,■ f^'-iTf^an Mj-i [/(.s 'Ai\^ ri.u; Hil'lvrt^r 

* 'lom -Dussey, who was noted for always having 
I3i1e cleanest gun of any of the cadets, and who is 
nbV engineer of the Marietta and Atlanta accomtab- 
(fdtion train of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, 
and as jolly and full of life as when he was in the 
Military Institute, ran into his room and got a sky- 
rocket, which he had been saving up for months. 
Coming into the yard, again, he touched it off, and 
up, up into the heavens, amid the cheers of the 
boys, it shot, leaving a stream of fire in its course. 

This was first noticed bv Major Storrs, who 
called General French's attention to it. Botti 
readily surmised its meaning, and that of the illu- 
rninatiou of the building and campus, and the major 
remarked, "I wish we had some way to show our 
high appreciation of their true soldierly greeting." 

"I think," answered the general, "that the steady 
roar of your guns is lall the evidence they want." . 

rjor in wisdom and rank to one newly matriculated. 

Old Charley was the antipode of Cornelius in size, being very 
tall and large ; but even Cornelius <30uld scarcely hold a candle to 
him in being pompous. When the wind from old Charley's expan- 
ded jaws went into that fife of his there was bound to be a sound 
which everybody around could hear. There is not a former cadet 
who does not smile when he remembers this universally petted aiftd 
mpoitant old pair. .'i,,|, 



WXKfi^t^'tJf^^'P&je: BATTERIES. ^^ 

Others around tliem saw the lights, and '^odh 
from hundreds of throats went up the yellj "Hur- 
Tah for the Georgia soldier boys!"'* '^"'•~* '-''-^ *"''^ 

While this was going on, not only f^oto^^'Golkge 
Hill," but also from every height in Marietta the 
soldiers and citizens could plainly see the enormous 
clouds of thick smoke which had clustered around 
the two crests, whenever the discharge of the Con- 
federate guns would, like lightning, shoot a bright 
glare over the entire surface, gilding it with splen- 
dors, and reflecting back even into the valleys 
between the surrounding hills. Then the sudden 
flashes amid the sulphurous mists high in the air 
toward them, and the sharp, ringing reports would 
tell of the presence of the shells from the Federal 
batteries. Sometimes these would burst out singly, 
then a score of them, almost at the same instant, 
would light up the sky and deafen the ear with 
their angry explosions. jdJ lot dnriuil .bold^aib ?.r 

Occasionally one from a Parrott gun would fall 
in the very outskirts of the town, and, as its 
startling "boom" shook the atmosphere and' rattled 
the windows around them, there would be a rush of 
the frightened citizens, ladies and children, from 
the neighborhood. Several of the death-dealing 
missiles landed as far as amid the grove in General 
Hansen's front yard, (now Mr. G. H. Camp's,) by the 
Western & Atlantic Railroad in the northern edge 
of the town. It was a night of terror in Marietta. 

Thus until nearly midnight they stood surveying 
the awful magnificence of the scene, and listening 



166 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

to the tumult; and were congratulating themselves 
that the Yankee fire seemed sensibly slackening 
and the Confederates still held the mountain with- 
out great difhculty, when suddenly a cry of horror 
and amaze burst forth from nearly every tongue. 

As from a volcano, a tremendous sheet of flame 
shot up into the air, lighting the clouds for miles 
around, and illumining the entire mountain. 
Then, as it faded away amid the darkness, a terrific 
crash smote the ears, and almost stampeded the 
crowd. 

"What is it?" came from every lip. 

"The mountain's blown up! We're ruined!" 
exclaimed a panic-stricken citizen. 

"Oh, no! bosh!" retorted an officer, in a con- 
temptuous tone, "a shell has exploded one of 
our artillery caissons. Our boys ain't frightened! 
Don't you hear them still firing? Only one battery 
is disabled. Hurrah for the Southern Confederacy ! " 

"Hurrah for the Southern Confederacy! The 
Yankees can't whip us ! Listen at our cannon still 
firing on the top of Kennesaw ! " yelled the crowd 
in a frenzy of enthusiasm, 

A dreadful rumbling interrupted their shouts, 
and, with blanched cheeks, every one stood con- 
founded with amazement and terror. Like the roll 
of thunder it came on, and amid the yells of 
thousands upon the mountain, a crashing, tearing 
sound told that ruin was rampant. 

For almost two minutes this continued, and then, 
in the forest at the base of the great height, it died 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 167 

out, and stillness again enfolded everything for an 
instant. 

The surmise of the officer in Marietta was nearly 
correct. A shell had fallen into an ammunition 
chest behind Captain Ward's battery, and exploded 
it with fearful display. 

An enormous column of flame darted like light- 
ning far up into the air above the mountain's crest, 
whirling the clouds like foot balls, and shooting its 
dazzling glare like a burst of daylight over the 
country for hundreds of yards around. 

The whole of the gigantic mass of Kennesaw was 
wreathed in splendor, and for an instant the curtain 
of night was withdrawn from over Marietta and 
the Federal batteries, and they were revealed to 
the gaze of the men amid the crags, — the one 
smiling in classic beauty and the other smoking and 
frowning with grisly horrors. 

Immediately accompanying the infernal flash a 
deafening roar rang out above the wildest tumult of 
battle, and, like an earthquake, shook the entire 
summit. 

A tremendous bowlder was blown from its base, 
and hurled over the mountain side on the south. 
With a thunderous sound and with fearful velocity 
it rolled down the steep slope, knocking huge crags 
from their resting places, breaking tall trees like 
pipe stems and whirling them before it, crackling 
and whizzing, and like an Alpine avalanche gather- 
ing force and volume, until at length with a dull 
heavy moan it died away amid the night. 



168 KENI^TESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

Anotber immense mass ot rock, which jutted up 
nearly a dozen feet above the summit, was between 
the buried chest and the guns, the former having 
been placed there for the double purpose of being 
duslb^ reach of the Federal shells and of being 
unable to damage the guns should any mishap 
explode it. The fatal missile which in part upset 
these calculations had struck a tree and glanced off 
at right angles, and darted into the chest. ,i uf!// 

The gigantic rock, however, sheltered the'^iftilP 
lerymen from ' t}Wi> €ff^s : M 4h^ calamity, and, 
although the dazzling flash almost blinded them, 
none of the men near the parapet were prostrated 
by ^he concussion or Struck by the falling debris. ^" 

One man, however, who had gone for a charge, 
and had just lifted the cover off of the chest, was 
blown to pieces, and sfevetalof the infaiitry ih' ilib' 
immediate vicinity werfe thdie^'dtie^ 1ii3^/''6tfc 
none seriously, -n^Muroo^. -Motnlfoiaml 

^ "tiis ihe iand o^God which has pr 

who were around it!" exclaimed Lieutenant Manning, 

"let us render thanks for His wonderful grace." 

^{"Yes,";9,nswerfid Gien^r^il Fri^nchft//it ^^^ ;f{?6ci^J. 
Providence.", ,.,;j rbr/^ hiiR banoa suo'iQhcwdi m rfJiY/ 
Then as Generrals French, Ector and Cockreltand^ 
Major Storrs, with a score of other leading officers 
and hundreds of men, who had rushed to the scene 
of the wreck, reverently bowed their heads, the 
noble "preacher-lieutenant," raised his hands, and, 
amid the thunders of guns from the crest before and 



WAKING' ¥F I THE BATTERIES. 169 

behind him,* and with the ^enemy's shells rending 
the air above him, prayed in wob xiarf^'B^i io issrls b 
. !'God of battles! God of mercy I we' thank Th^6^ 
for this Thy mercy which has triumphed over the 
poiyer/'of battlek Thy mercy is Thy delight and 
our glory! Over us this day Thou hast held the 
shield of Thy protection, and by Thy grace have 
we been saved. Grant that through this life the 
mountain of Thy salvation may be to our souls a 
greater place of refuge than to-day Thou hast made 
this mountain to our bodies. And now we ask 
Thy blessing upon our great commander and his 
chieftains, and upon every soldier, however humble, 
and that Thou wilt adorn our sunny country with' 
the robes of prosperity, happiness and peace, and' 
make it the center of worship, and of Thy glory 
here on earth ; and to Thy holy name be all the" 
praise, through Christ, our Redeemer. Amen !" v: 
,-.i^'Amen!" arose in a fervent tone from officers 
and men alike. 

This had scarcely been said ere, like a curtain, the 
clouds above them separated, and the moon shot 
the splendor of her silvery rays upon the battle- 
crowned mountain and the smoking hills before it. 
The sulphurous fog, which clustered around the 
crest, it gilded with a brilliant whiteness which rad- 
iated upward again, filling the sky with a halo of 
iridescent glory. ifiioru.; ,11" 

-This noble son of the south was killed is th^feattji: otK^i^^ 
saw Mountain four days after the occurrence herein described, as 
is shown in the following extract from General Cockrell's reportiti 

"Lieutenant ArehibCld D. Manning, a minister of the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian church and a most exemplary Christian, is 
among the killed " 



170 KENNESAW'S BOMBARDMENT. 

Above the Federal batteries it appeared to spread 
a sheet of feathery down, and even the dark forests 
mirrored back its glittering beams from their myriad 
dew-sprayed leaves. 

It seemed an ideal dream of ethereal beauty, the 
reflex of the smile of gracious heaven, revealed to 
inspire men's hearts with love for each other and 
reverence for God. 

As if written in the sky, its lesson was one whose 
words to the soul whispered, "Peace on earth, good 
will to Dien !" 

For a minute only this continued, then the drift- 
ing clouds rolled together again, and naught could 
be seen or heard but the baleful glare and angry hiss 
of the war-serpent. 

Suddenly General French remarked : * 'Let every- 
body go to his post, and be prepared for any emer- 
gency. The Yankees are yelling in great triumph 
over what they think is a serious calamity to us, 
when really it is a misfortune merely local to this 
part of the line." 

All listened attentively, and from far down in 
the darkness, from east to west, was heard the cheer- 
ing of thousands of men. 

"Huzza! huzza ! huzza !" swept up from the abyss 
of gloom to the lofty perch on the mountain's crest. 

"Here, General Cockrell," said General French, 
"I'll conscript you up here for a minute; and 
Colonel Barry and General Ector, form all your 
men, who are available, upon the summit, and give 
the Yankees a regular Confederate salute !" 



WAKING UP THE BATTERIES. 171 

"Yes, give them a salute!" arose from all sides. 

The sound of bugles and the roll of drums were 
heard around the mountain top by even the Fed- 
erals below, and thrilling even to them was this 
warlike music, coming at such a time and apparent- 
ly out of the very thunder-clouds, or from amid 
the stars. 

Within a few minutes nearly two thousand men 
stood in line along the ridge, facing the north, and 
then from Major Storrs' batteries all the cannon 
were simultaneously fired with an uproarious report, 
and the reverberations of their discharge and of the 
explosion of their shells below, had hardly died 
away ere from the three brigade commanders was 
heard the shout: "Make ready! take aim at the 
Yankees! FIRE!!" 

From one end of the long summit to the other, 
with sharp, crashing reports which were almost co- 
ordinate in time, a blaze of fire burst forth from the 
entire division front, illumining the ridge as though 
it were crowned with lightning. 

Succeeding this a wild and defiant yell arose 
from the men, and, ere the deafening echoes had 
subsided it was repeated again and yet again, until 
old Kennesaw seemed the house of uproar. 

Of this demonstration a Federal officer, who was 
captured a few days later, said : 

"When we saw the brilliant flash, and heard 
the startling sound of the explosion, we thought 
we had blown up your magazine; and the idea at 
once occurred to us that if we would make a rush 



172 KENNESA W'S rBOMBARDMEN^T. 

.isI)S;ti!<5Dg loolunana, \ve could seize the mountain 
^iiile yiour terortps were in a state of demoralization ; 
but when we listened to the boom of your artillery 
continuing almost without interruption, and within 
the next few minutes heard the blare of bugles and 
the roll of drums, calling the men to dress parade 
apparently up in the clouds a thousand feet above 
U8, and saw the chain of musketry fire dart 
through the pitchy darkness from one end of the 
crest to the other, with a rattling din like thunder, 
and then were greeted by the infernal racket of 
your rebel yells, we knew that we had better stay 
where we were and let you alone; fbr no troops 
■could be caught napping who recovered themselves 
so soon from the effects of a catastrophe such as we 
thought you had suffered. It 'was' admirable ; and 
told us a tale wonderfully creditable to your men." 
The infantry demonstration having proven an 
entire success in restoring the morale of the soldiers, 
which the explosion had to some extent threatened 
to impair. General French issued orders for them 
to be again withdrawn to the southern side of the 
iCrest, out of reach of the Federal fire. 
lijf.The bombardment, however, continued vigor- 
ously for about an hour longer, and then gradually 
lost force, until by two o'clock in the morning 
it ceased entirely ; and, as the exhausted artillery- 
men sought rest in slumber, one of the grandest 
j scenes of one of th^ mightiest Iwars o|\th£.ii3entacy 
jjeapae. to an end. suixHgBiir luo^ qu avf old bsid 9w 
jfaiii a siuin biuow aw li ffidf en of benuooo aoao 




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